What's the Rationale for Drafting Te'o?

[kerouac9]

Conversation on-going on the Te'o thread...

 

[Russ Smith]

Sorry missed that. Mods please merge.

 

[Russ Smith]

I worked with a guy who fell for one of those scams. We kept telling him his online girlfriend "Pearl" was a fake. Finally she asked him for money to buy a plane ticket to meet him, and he got suspicious. 6 months later we read the story in the paper of the man arrested for that scam.

note, former NBA player Gabe Pruitt got fooled like that while at USC. Some UCLA students started emailing him pretending to be a hot girl, sent him pics, he responded repeatedly. Then when Gabe was shooting FT's against UCLA the student body started chanting the name of the fake girl. He admitted afterwards he'd been completely fooled.

 

[crisper57]

Reading this story brings back a lot of bad memories for me. A family member of mine got scammed just like this. Some one contacted him on Facebook or MySpace. They started talking. A lot.

Supposed she was a millionaire ex-model (cause they all are lookin for love on the Internet). Pretty soon, she had some personal tragedy and he was sending her money.

He drifted further and further away from his family. When they started talking on the phone, he bought a bluetooth sot hat they could always be connected. Half the time, I didn't know if he was talking to me or her. She was always there.

And if we questioned her stories, he'd get angry. And defensive.

My wedding was approaching at the time and he was supposed to be my Best Man. When we got his invitation back, it said "+1". I called BS. Said we weren't paying for her dinner if he hadn't even met her face-to-face. He got mad, dropped out of the wedding.

The scary part about this was how much he was able to convince himself that her increasingly insane stories were true. So this T'eo kid, I feel for him, because I've seen how these scammers can prey on their victims. And I've witnessed the shame they feel when their world finally comes unraveled.

 

[crisper57]

Kent Somers ‏@kentsomers
Wait, it's wrong to have an imaginary girlfriend?

 

[crisper57]

I really think it will be revealed that he was the victim of a scam. I am scared that by the time this plays out, our media will be embarrassed for the bile it has spewed all over this kid. By then, it will be too late. He's mentally fragile at this moment and all this attention is going to crush him.

 

[PitchShifter]

I really think it will be revealed that he was the victim of a scam. I am scared that by the time this plays out, our media will be embarrassed for the bile it has spewed all over this kid. By then, it will be too late. He's mentally fragile at this moment and all this attention is going to crush him.

The facts related in the Deadspin story suggests that Te'o was in on the ruse. Apparently he made statements about phone calls and meetings with this person,

 

[Dback Jon]

I have a hard time believing he didn't know about this. I think he was in on it.


NoSuch Dame

 

[Chopper0080]

Reading this story brings back a lot of bad memories for me. A family member of mine got scammed just like this. Some one contacted him on Facebook or MySpace. They started talking. A lot.

Supposed she was a millionaire ex-model (cause they all are lookin for love on the Internet). Pretty soon, she had some personal tragedy and he was sending her money.

He drifted further and further away from his family. When they started talking on the phone, he bought a bluetooth sot hat they could always be connected. Half the time, I didn't know if he was talking to me or her. She was always there.

And if we questioned her stories, he'd get angry. And defensive.

My wedding was approaching at the time and he was supposed to be my Best Man. When we got his invitation back, it said "+1". I called BS. Said we weren't paying for her dinner if he hadn't even met her face-to-face. He got mad, dropped out of the wedding.

The scary part about this was how much he was able to convince himself that her increasingly insane stories were true. So this T'eo kid, I feel for him, because I've seen how these scammers can prey on their victims. And I've witnessed the shame they feel when their world finally comes unraveled.

Hard for me to believe someone could be dupped this way, but I have not known anyone to fall prey to something like this. Thanks for sharing that story as I never would have thought Te'o could not have known.

 

[crisper57]

The facts related in the Deadspin story suggests that Te'o was in on the ruse. Apparently he made statements about phone calls and meetings with this person,

Yeah, that is a little damning, but like I said, I've even seen that before.

My family member carried on a relationship with the scammer and the alter-ego at the same time without realizing they were the same person. The scammer acted like they were the "girlfriend's" best friend. In fact, when he sent her money, he sent the check to the scammer with the intent of getting it to the fake person. (Because the fake person had some crazy story explaining why they couldn't get the money directly).

 

[crisper57]

Hard for me to believe someone could be dupped this way, but I have not known anyone to fall prey to something like this. Thanks for sharing that story as I never would have thought Te'o could not have known.

There is a movie and now a TV show called 'Catfish" on MTV. All about scammers developing fake Internet relationships.

Stumbled across it while flipping through channels and you'd be amazed at how similar all these stories are.

I think it is on demand. I could only watch for about 10 minutes because it hit so close to home.

 

[crisper57]

I have a hard time believing he didn't know about this. I think he was in on it.


NoSuch Dame

I actually hope he was in on it, because the blow-back he's getting today would be disgusting if he really was an unwitting victim.

 

[Dback Jon]

I actually hope he was in on it, because the blow-back he's getting today would be disgusting if he really was an unwitting victim.

It is hard to believe he was unwitting, since he claims to have met her, etc.

The woman in the pics is a real woman, but pics lifted from a lady's facebook account that has no connection to this at all.

 

[crisper57]

It is hard to believe he was unwitting, since he claims to have met her, etc.

The woman in the pics is a real woman, but pics lifted from a lady's facebook account that has no connection to this at all.

Would you admit to having an Internet-only relationship for over a year? Of course not. So he could have lied about meeting her in person. Again, not saying he didn't lie, but I wonder if there was a malicious intent on his part. Or was he perpetuating the lie, hoping against hope that it would become the truth?

 

[Russ Smith]

The facts related in the Deadspin story suggests that Te'o was in on the ruse. Apparently he made statements about phone calls and meetings with this person,

Yep he publicly stated they were on vacation together in hawaii at one point.

Clearly he got scammed and didn't want to come clean but at some point it goes from innocent victim to stop digging a bigger hole.

 

[crisper57]

Yep he publicly stated they were on vacation together in hawaii at one point.

Clearly he got scammed and didn't want to come clean but at some point it goes from innocent victim to stop digging a bigger hole.

Yep. My family member didn't stop digging for 18 months. Pride and shame have a way of pushing people to see how far the hole goes. He damn near lost everyone that loved him, first by systematically pushing them away, then by alienating the last of us. Up until that point, he never struck me as mentally unstable. He was popular, happy, and loved. So for someone to get their hooks in him, it scares me that they could do it to anyone.

 

[Dback Jon]

Would you admit to having an Internet-only relationship for over a year? Of course not. So he could have lied about meeting her in person. Again, not saying he didn't lie, but I wonder if there was a malicious intent on his part. Or was he perpetuating the lie, hoping against hope that it would become the truth?

Yep he publicly stated they were on vacation together in hawaii at one point.

Clearly he got scammed and didn't want to come clean but at some point it goes from innocent victim to stop digging a bigger hole.

So either he got scammed, and then tried to cover it up (and expanded on it, with the death story), or he was in it from the start or close to the start.

 

[crisper57]

So either he got scammed, and then tried to cover it up (and expanded on it, with the death story), or he was in it from the start or close to the start.

I think he got scammed. Fell in love with this fake person. Got so emotionally invested that he pushed others away to the point where this relationship was all that he had left.

In order to not seem like a complete weirdo, he lied about meeting her in person. At the same time, he got to know the real scammer as one of her "friends". Then when scammer and girlfriend told him crazy stories, he was getting it from "two" sources, so he accepted it as truth.

I also think the leukemia story was the scammer's exit strategy. I think it legitimately devastated T'eo. Then at some point, he figured it out. He alerted the University. They investigated. But in order to protect this kid's future, they also tried a cover-up, which is why they didn't alert the media.

(For the record, I knew nothing about this kid or the girlfriend's death. I don't follow ND football and I worked long hours leading up to the big Bowls, so I missed the media coverage. The first I heard of all this was the deadspin article today, and the details hit so close to home, that I had to speak up. Maybe if I had felt duped by the original story, I'd want my pound of flesh too.)

 

[Southpaw]

NoSuch Dame

I see what you did there.

 

[Dback Jon]

I think he got scammed. Fell in love with this fake person. Got so emotionally invested that he pushed others away to the point where this relationship was all that he had left.

In order to not seem like a complete weirdo, he lied about meeting her in person. At the same time, he got to know the real scammer as one of her "friends". Then when scammer and girlfriend told him crazy stories, he was getting it from "two" sources, so he accepted it as truth.

I also think the leukemia story was the scammer's exit strategy. I think it legitimately devastated T'eo. Then at some point, he figured it out. He alerted the University. They investigated. But in order to protect this kid's future, they also tried a cover-up, which is why they didn't alert the media.

(For the record, I knew nothing about this kid or the girlfriend's death. I don't follow ND football and I worked long hours leading up to the big Bowls, so I missed the media coverage. The first I heard of all this was the deadspin article today, and the details hit so close to home, that I had to speak up. Maybe if I had felt duped by the original story, I'd want my pound of flesh too.)

It is possible. We shall see. There is a third possibility as well, given Te'o's background...

 

[clif]

I love twitter. People have no clue until its too late what kind of reach online activity has. I feel pretty confident in saying that he outplayed his hand. This could cost him millions. He thought it was a joke until it got to big to manage. Now they are in full retreat mode. Prank gone public due to technology.

 

[GuernseyCard]

What's really sad, and we should keep this in mind, a young person who never existed is dead.

 

[CtCardinals78]

What's really sad, and we should keep this in mind, a young person who never existed is dead.

Seth Meyers, is that you?

@sethmeyers21: These Te'o jokes are all very funny but let's all try and remember that a person who never existed is dead.

 

[clif]

What's really sad, and we should keep this in mind, a young person who never existed is dead.

 

[Southpaw]

Watching ESPN attempting to spin this story, that Gene Wojch...... put together about this fictitious person, back in Oct./ Nov last year, is pathetic. They are the ones who made this "hoax" universal knowledge, when in fact it is a myth they helped construct. So much for fact checking a story. How many sympathy votes did Teo get that probably would have gone to others in the awards process? Oh well. That's the way it is. No damage done, in reality.