'I found love thanks to my catfish': Woman meets love of her life thanks to man who tricked her for a year
A woman who was catfished looking for Mr Right online has managed to track down the man in the photo that was used to dupe her in the first place.
Emma Perrier thought she had met the love her life until he turned out to be a 55-year-old divorcee.
The 35-year-old restaurant manager grew suspicious of her handsome beau, named Ronaldo, after he came up with regular excuses not to meet her face to face.
So Emma she turned detective and found out ‘Ronaldo’ was actually a “bored and lonely” shop fitter called Alan.
She had been ‘catfished‘ – web slang for the practice of using photos of other people to lure other social media users into online relationships.
But Emma wasn’t going to just let it go and instead she decided to find the man whose image Alan had pinched.
She discovered the handsome face she had fallen for belonged to 35-year-old model Adam Guzel who lived nearly 3,200 kilometres away in Turkey.
Now, in a remarkable twist of fate, Emma and Adam have met and fallen for each other and they want to thank Stanley for bringing them together.
Emma, from Richmond, southwest London, said she hated Alan at first, but now wants to thank her catfish.
“We are grateful he tricked me as it led me to finding the love of my life,” she said.
“I hope my story serves as a cautionary tale to others.
“I was lucky it led to me finding love but most people just end up heartbroken.
“I thought I was talking to a 35-year-old model and he was actually a 55-year-old man.”
Emma, from Richmond, London, joined online dating site Zoosk in September 2015 because her anti-social restaurant hours made it difficult to meet new people.
She quickly received a message from ‘Ronaldo Scicluna’ who was tall dark and handsome and was blown away by his picture and the pair soon dated online for about a year.
However, after he constantly found excuses not to meet, she downloaded Reverse Image – an app that traces pictures – in September 2016 and the truth was devastating.
