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Deadspin: (Notre Dame football player) Manti Te’o’s Dead Girlfriend is a hoax

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gutshot said:
Why does everyone keep saying this lasted for years? It was just under a year, with the most intense contact lasting a few months.
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Nope. In the Couric interview, he said he was "friends" with Kekuo for a couple of years before "things got serious." That's the point when he decided to ask around about her authenticity.

I know that "Nice to meet you" tweet makes zero sense in that context, but none of this mess makes sense.
 
dojokun said:
It's not like we haven't tried to give some benefit of the doubt. But not all duping is equal. If you met someone online and got into a relationship with them, wouldn't you want to see them talking to you live? It's believable that he buys the "no webcam" excuse for a little bit, but not for YEARS. Add that to his lack of trying to see her when she was dying in the hospital, because she made him promise not to? It's way beyond the level of stupidity I've ever heard of when looking back to all the other stories of people being duped.

EDIT: Beaten by Joe Shlabotnik.
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You know there's an entire TV series devoted to this kind of stuff, right?
 
MIMIC said:
You know there's an entire TV series devoted to this kind of stuff, right?
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I hadn't heard of it until this story broke. Do the people on that show get duped for 3 years, the last 1 year being in a relationship with the fake person, all with 1 person being the hoax?
 
lenovox1 said:
Nope. In the Couric interview, he said he was "friends" with Kekuo for a couple of years before "things got serious." That's the point when he decided to ask around about her authenticity.

I know that "Nice to meet you" tweet makes zero sense in that context, but none of this mess makes sense.
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Wasnt that tweet from 2011? That is what makes me think he was in on it from almost the start. There is no explanation for him asking about her in 2010, and saying they met in 2009.
 
dojokun said:
I hadn't heard of it until this story broke. Do the people on that show get duped for 3 years, the last 1 year being in a relationship with the fake person, all with 1 person being the hoax?
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Yes. A couple of the episodes involve people who have been in "relationships" for years. And just like the show, it turns out that the hoaxer has not only been duping the person featured in the episode, but also others as well (and has been doing it for a long time). The episode I saw last night was a guy pretending to be a female because he himself wished that he was just that. He said he was gay, but those were his words (that he wanted to be a female, that is).

It was weird (and incredibly awkward).
 
MIMIC said:
Yes. A couple of the episodes involve people who have been in "relationships" for years. And just like the show, it turns out that the hoaxer has not only been duping the person featured in the episode, but also others as well (and has been doing it for a long time). The episode I saw last night was a guy pretending to be a female because he himself wished that he was just that. He said he was gay, but those were his words (that he wanted to be a female, that is).

It was weird (and incredibly awkward).
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For years, huh. And no attempts to video chat? They all believed the "no webcam" or "webcam not working" excuse for years?
 
It's obvious now that anyone without extreme bias can see Manti was a victim in a cruel prank. It really bothers me about people calling this guy "the biggest moron on earth". He has a 3.25 gpa and graduated in 3.5 years from the University of Notre Dame, doesn't sound like a total idiot to me.

I know how bad gaf wants Teo to be gay but its 100% not true or atleast he slammed a whole lot of beav for a gay dude.
 
I'm still gonna go ahead and assume he's gay with Tuiasosopo.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think I am. I think it'll come out in years that he's gay and just doesn't have the courage to come out.

Zigzz14 said:
It's obvious now that anyone without extreme bias can see Manti was a victim in a cruel prank. It really bothers me about people calling this guy "the biggest moron on earth". He has a 3.25 gpa and graduated in 3.5 years from the University of Notre Dame, doesn't sound like a total idiot to me.

I know how bad gaf wants Teo to be gay but its 100% not true or atleast he slammed a whole lot of beav for a gay dude.
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No he didn't. If he was hooking up with girls he wouldn't have had an online girlfriend on the other side of the country. Unless, of course, he was cheating on his gf.

Occam's razor.

If he was truly the victim of the prank, it still doesn't explain the inconsistencies in his story, particularly why he perpetuated the story at the Heisman award ceremony when he was told it was fake days earlier.
 
Zigzz14 said:
It's obvious now that anyone without extreme bias can see Manti was a victim in a cruel prank. It really bothers me about people calling this guy "the biggest moron on earth". He has a 3.25 gpa and graduated in 3.5 years from the University of Notre Dame, doesn't sound like a total idiot to me.
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Sorry champ, can't have it both ways.
 
Zigzz14 said:
It's obvious now that anyone without extreme bias can see Manti was a victim in a cruel prank. It really bothers me about people calling this guy "the biggest moron on earth". He has a 3.25 gpa and graduated in 3.5 years from the University of Notre Dame, doesn't sound like a total idiot to me.

I know how bad gaf wants Teo to be gay but its 100% not true or atleast he slammed a whole lot of beav for a gay dude.
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Wait, are you saying that Manti Te'o is a betraying his faith?

That's a surprisingly blunt admission from you.
 
Zigzz14 said:
It's obvious now that anyone without extreme bias can see Manti was a victim in a cruel prank. It really bothers me about people calling this guy "the biggest moron on earth". He has a 3.25 gpa and graduated in 3.5 years from the University of Notre Dame, doesn't sound like a total idiot to me.

I know how bad gaf wants Teo to be gay but its 100% not true or atleast he slammed a whole lot of beav for a gay dude.
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I have to disagree... I think that people without extreme bias would see that it doesn't make sense for him to not raise a red flag when he couldn't get a live video feed through Skype / Facetime. And being book smart and street smart are different. If he truly fell for this, and I have trouble believing he did, he would be lacking in street smarts. I don't think people were questioning his book smarts.
 
Tamanon said:
All I'm saying is, the second he started suspecting, it'd be the perfect time to just mail a webcam. They're super cheap.
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But she had a webcam and every time they would video chat he would tell her he couldnt see her, and she would say it was working fine, and he wouldnt think about it anymore. If he wasnt in on it he wanted to get duped.
 
dojokun said:
For years, huh. And no attempts to video chat? They all believed the "no webcam" or "webcam not working" excuse for years?
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I wouldn't say that they believed it necessarily, but that they were willing to overlook those kind of details in order to support the version of what they already believe about their "true love". Willful ignorance, if you will.
 
MIMIC said:
I wouldn't say that they believed it necessarily, but that they were willing to overlook those kind of details in order to support the version of what they already believe about their "true love". Willful ignorance, if you will.
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Were the victims mostly socially awkward people? Or at least unattractive? Part of why it's not believable that Manti Te'o fell for this is because his status as an in-shape football player makes it tough to believe he's desperate enough to have the willful ignorance to pursue a girl online instead of taking one of the more local options.
 
Zigzz14 said:
It really bothers me about people calling this guy "the biggest moron on earth". He has a 3.25 gpa and graduated in 3.5 years from the University of Notre Dame, doesn't sound like a total idiot to me.
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Wrong. He's an absolute moron - who in addition to shamelessly lying; embarrassed himself, his family and his shitty University.
 
dojokun said:
Were the victims mostly socially awkward people? Or at least unattractive? Part of why it's not believable that Manti Te'o fell for this is because his status as an in-shape football player makes it tough to believe he's desperate enough to have the willful ignorance to pursue a girl online instead of taking one of the more local options.
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That was the strangest part. The victims appeared to be as socially competent as the next person. And they were all nice-looking people. But the HOAXERS, on the other hand, seemed to be the socially awkward ones.

edit: Here's a recap of the one from last night: http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/872616/catfish-the-tv-show-ep-8-recap.jhtml#id=1700289
 
MIMIC said:
That was the strangest part. The victims appeared to be as socially competent as the next person. And they were all nice-looking people. But the HOAXERS, on the other hand, seemed to be the socially awkward ones.

edit: Here's a recap of the one from last night: http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/872616/catfish-the-tv-show-ep-8-recap.jhtml#id=1700289
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I've heard about this show, especially since this whole Lennay situation, but I never really paid attention to it. Does it seem more real than the typical MTV reality shows?


The funny thing is ages ago, in the mid 90's when the internet began to really take off one of my friends met a girl online and when he showed us supposed pictures of her we all laughed because they looked like they were magazine scans of some gorgeous model.

Well he travelled across country to meet her after talking online for months and to our surprise she turned out to not only be real but looked exactly like the girl in the pictures. They have a son who's in his late teens now.

So it's definitely not impossible for something like this to happen to someone and be real but I'm still having a tough time buying Te'o's story, mostly because of the crazy amounts of lies he told before getting caught.
 
MIMIC said:
That was the strangest part. The victims appeared to be as socially competent as the next person. And they were all nice-looking people. But the HOAXERS, on the other hand, seemed to be the socially awkward ones.
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I definitely expected the hoaxers to be psychopaths. Well these victims have got to be the bottom of the barrel in terms of street smarts. It's just that. Manti Te'o, star Notre Dame player..... has got to have the LEAST incentive to have willful ignorance in this scenario. Sooo many girls he could just have.
 
Saint Gregory said:
The funny thing is ages ago, in the mid 90's when the internet began to really take off one of my friends met a girl online and when he showed us supposed pictures of her we all laughed because they looked like they were magazine scans of some gorgeous model.

Well he travelled across country to meet her after talking online for months and to our surprise she turned out to not only be real but looked exactly like the girl in the pictures. They have a son who's in his late teens now.
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That is awesome.
 
knicks said:
I love all of these images and screenshots of texts and tweets getting released now. The picture of the girl with the date is the best. Am I the only one who believes all of these things were done after he got caught with all of this? Why would this girl hold a sign with the date December 6th/21st whatever it was? LOL So full of shit, it is hilarious. More and more images and such are getting released now. More things are getting created as we speak.
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Watch the Katie interview. He explained that pic convincingly. Also the actual girl has come forward and the timelines match
 
I still don't believe this.

1. The hoax went on far too long.

2. That's not a dude in those voicemails.

3. A spreadsheet can be edited, making that phone list pointless.

4. Do we have any timestamps on those voicemails? Every voicemail from cell providers offers a header reading.

5. There is no way anyone sustains a prank that long with zero financial payoff. When she was diagnosed with leukemia is when a scammer would go for the cash grab. None of that here.

This story is just so ridiculously far-fetched, and I see a lot of people buying it. The story sounds like a bad lie made to cover another bad lie. Even if you believe he was hoaxed, you have to admit that he tried to cover up lies with lies. What's to prevent him from doing that now? He had the media blackout for a week or so, which is more than enough time to prepare your "evidence". I don't believe a lick of it. PEACE.
 
dojokun said:
I want to add that although I don't currently buy into the theory of Manti Te'o truly being this lacking in street smarts, I also don't have an alternate theory that doesn't have its own problems. Like, the idea of him being in on the hoax from the beginning is also weird because it was way before he was considered for any prominent awards, so there's a huge lack of incentive.
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If he's in on it, then the entire chain of events would be fabricated, meaning this could easily have been created in time for the Heisman. The timeline only works against Te'o's claims IMO, because it's just so implausible that someone could be duped or carry on a not-for-profit scam for that long. That's why it's easier to believe he's just lying, because it would explain why the story sounds so unbelievable. PEACE.
 
watching that interview, Manti comes across like a huge fucking idiot. It was like she was interviewing a 15 year old. I'm completely off the idea that he could have had anything to do with this. I think he was just a simp.
 
Zigzz14 said:
It's obvious now that anyone without extreme bias can see Manti was a victim in a cruel prank. It really bothers me about people calling this guy "the biggest moron on earth". He has a 3.25 gpa and graduated in 3.5 years from the University of Notre Dame, doesn't sound like a total idiot to me.
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"LEAVE MANTI ALONE!!!"

The guy is a complete moron AND a liar. Why back someone so despicable?
 
Zigzz14 said:
It's obvious now that anyone without extreme bias can see Manti was a victim in a cruel prank. It really bothers me about people calling this guy "the biggest moron on earth". He has a 3.25 gpa and graduated in 3.5 years from the University of Notre Dame, doesn't sound like a total idiot to me.

I know how bad gaf wants Teo to be gay but its 100% not true or atleast he slammed a whole lot of beav for a gay dude.
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Hes a football player. He probably had his coaches doing his homework for him.
 
Ninja Scooter said:
watching that interview, Manti comes across like a huge fucking idiot. It was like she was interviewing a 15 year old. I'm completely off the idea that he could have had anything to do with this. I think he was just a simp.
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He's a man-child from a an overly-protective family that is also extremely religious. I'm not sure what people were really expecting here. Notre Dame is full of these type of people. The campus population lives in a bubble fantasy world, which has its undeniable perks but also a lot of drawbacks.
 
Did anyone see the interview Anderson Cooper did of Diane O'Meara, the girl who's image was used to represent Lennay? She explained how the hoaxer guy came to obtain her picture.

Do you all think she was lying, too?
 
MIMIC said:
Did anyone see the interview Anderson Cooper did of Diane O'Meara, the girl who's image was used to represent Lennay? She explained how the hoaxer guy came to obtain her picture.

Do you all think she was lying, too?
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Of course! We all made up our minds the moment the flawless Deadspin article was posted.
 
MIMIC said:
Did anyone see the interview Anderson Cooper did of Diane O'Meara, the girl who's image was used to represent Lennay? She explained how the hoaxer guy came to obtain her picture.

Do you all think she was lying, too?
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No why would she lie? I dont see her story helping or hurting the idea that Teo and RT where in on it.
 
MIMIC said:
Did anyone see the interview Anderson Cooper did of Diane O'Meara, the girl who's image was used to represent Lennay? She explained how the hoaxer guy came to obtain her picture.

Do you all think she was lying, too?
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Is her story any different than what she told Deadspin the moment the story broke?
 
goldsoundz said:
hahahahahhaaha

"Manti, that just doesn't make sense to me."

"It doesn't make sense to me either."
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LOL!! That's the part I don't understand. Why did Manti say that he doesn't even understand why HE didn't just drive from San Diego to LA to see the love of his life?
 
Well Manti, as soon as your draft money check comes in you will be able to fill your world with as many girlfriends as you want, fake or real.
 
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