Catfishing Hoax: Manti Te'o

Catfishing has been a popular topic over the past two weeks.  With the popular Notre Dame football star Manti Te'O who was subject to a catfishing prank that has been played on him over 3 years.  He was tricked by people from his school pranked as a girl suffering from cancer.  She then became his girlfriend and they would constantly talk on the phone.  Recently the alleged "girl" died from cancer this september at the beginning of the season.  Manti used her death as passion for this season and he lead Notre Dame to a undefeated season.  He had passionate conversations with reporters using her death as incentive for the greatest season of his life. 

Manti Te'o has now gone through something similar. Lennay Kekua, the woman he claimed was his girlfriend, was nothing more than a fake Twitter profile and someone pretending to be the woman on the other side of the computer. As details about the hoax emerge, Schulman has jumped in, reaching out to Te'o and launching his own investigation. Schulman says he believes Te'o was a victim in this story and that the story goes much deeper.

"Notre Dame said a story that star Manti Te'o's girlfriend had died of leukemia — a loss he said inspired him all season and helped him lead the Irish to the BCS title game — turned out to be a hoax apparently perpetrated against the linebacker.

13 Photos

Manti Te'o

Notre Dame Fighting Irish Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick held a press conference late Wednesday about the apparent hoax Wednesday after Deadspin.com said it could find no record that Lennay Kekua ever existed.



"This was a very elaborate, very sophisticated hoax perpetrated for reasons we can't fully understand," Swarbrick said.


CBS News and its morning program, "CBS This Morning," were among the many news outlets that reported on the "hoax" girlfriend's death. "CBS This Morning" will have an update on the report Thursday.



The Notre Dame athletic director insisted "several things" led him to believe Te'o did not create the girlfriend himself after the university's investigation into the situation, led by a private investigative firm.



"Manti was the victim of that hoax. He has to carry that with him for a while. In many ways, Manti was the perfect mark because he's the guy who was so willing to believe in others," Swarbrick said. "The pain was real. The grieving was real. The affection was real."

By Te'o's own account, she was an "online" girlfriend.



"This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online. We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her," he said in statement.



"To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating."



"In retrospect, I obviously should have been much more cautious. If anything good comes of this, I hope it is that others will be far more guarded when they engage with people online than I was.""

Quote is from cbs news
Referenced CBS