There was never a time where people weren't well aware of catfishing. That was always peoples objection to meeting people online since day one, not knowing whether they were who they claimed to be.
That's how those "hot singles in your area" sites work. It's multiple people pretending to be 1 person and every time you ask to meet. They have an excuse
I remember when this happened and when the catfish part came out there were a lot of people who treated the whole situation like a joke and that was really sad to see. What he was going through was real and I can't imagine the emotional anguish he dealt with, and it probably still affects him to this day in some ways. He deserves nothing but compassion, not ridicule.
You're right, you can't help but feel bad about the guy when you thought that the same thing could happen to you. Still funny though, 10/10 would still laugh behind his back if I ever see him in the same room.
Same. I had second hand embarrassment for the guy so a lot of the stuff in this video was unknown to me because it made me cringe hearing all the details. Especially since Catfish the tv show was a big hit at the time
I know its all a big meme at this point, but i cant even imagine being in love with someone, that person dies, you grieve over that death, and then you find out that person never really even existed in the first place. What kind of toll would that take on your mental health? Or would it not even matter anymore knowing it wasn't ever real in the first place?
Yea, it's very sad. What did he ever do to deserve that? I'm glad he's happily married and still playing professionally. I can't even imagine what he went through... to find out the person you fell in love with wasn't real... I'm sure their were red flags along the way but when you're in love you don't see them... I'm sure it still matters to him... those feelings are real. But like I said glad he moved on from it
@@gerardocontreras9538 yeah, when I was 19 I let myself be the victim of a manipulative and toxic relationship, it was only a few years ago but it matured me a lot. Now I’m adept at spotting red flags and navigating those situations, but back then I know I could’ve so easily fallen into a catfish type situation and not even realized it. A lot of grown adults made fun of him at the time, which is really annoying because they act like half of them wouldn’t have easily fallen into the same trap at that age. They just grew up at a time where the Internet wasn’t as widespread. He deserves sympathy but yeah I’m really glad he’s doing ok now
@@PurgPurg I too, fell badly for something toxic at 19, so I respect you even more for coming out and talking about it. Took me a while to understand it all, even fell for someone else while healing through it. The hardest part was not blaming myself for going through with something like that at the age of 19 and not at a much younger age, but we all go through different events at different stages in our lives.
yeah thats an interesting question. its like a weird double loss that turns into a triple loss once you realize neither of the losses were even real. that must be a very unique and specific feeling to go through cause its not the type of situation that could happen organically in the real world. must mess with your head big time
@@PurgPurg It's ironic, cause half of those people are in marriages that have fallen apart and or is very toxic. Source: Seriously, one google search of that era of folk and the divorce rate is evidence enough LOL.
It's sad how much the catfishing thing overshadowed the fact that he went out there and absolutely dominated in that Irish vs Spartans game despite mourning his grandmother and his girlfriend (or at least the person he thought was his girlfriend)
Positive things like what you said is wrong according to the internet because there is no drama and no one dies like the internet wants because you have no comments besides mine lol
I remember the Manti Te'o story was headline news for what felt like months. Absolutely insane and it was incredible how it only got weirder by the day.
@@blacklungsanji3 I mean he believed the story of her being real even adter they faked their death. Props to the guy, he can play american football well but man do I not want him to take an IQ test ever for I fear for his results. Wish him the best, seems like a good guy but really gullible and not so bright.
It seems she was in on it. She sent the photo to the guy who was doing the catfishing. Why would you send a photo with MSMK and the date for no reason?
Mtf trans people go through " vocal therapy" to sound more feminine. The same technique is also used by people trolling on online games. Extremely plausible tbh.
I was watching a true crime video thinking the voice of the person was a girl and then midway through the video they talked on camera and it was a guy with a beard. I was like damn I had no idea.
I haven’t heard about this story, but I remember watching a tv show about catfishing, and how two people (one of the people being a basketball player) believing they were taking to one another, but it ended up being them talking to one person that pretended to be the other
@@ironmaster6496 No, a catfishing triangle is really rare. A thought they were talking to B. B thought they were talking to A. But A and B were both talking to C who was pretending to be both A and B to the other. That's super rare and convoluted madness.
With deepfake tech. Its getting kinda easier to do this. Its not perfect yet but its only a matter of time until its near indistinguishable to the real thing.
@@frostbite3318 I think online relationship is a great way to establish said relationship over an emotional bond instead of a physical attraction. Thus it has much greater chances of lasting for a long time over meeting some lady at a bar or party. Its pretty much in the same vein as pen pals. It has its pit falls but so does normal IRL dating. If your relationship is based on you being thirsty over slutty selfies. No shit you're gonna get cat fished.
@@ceresbane that’s an oddly cynical way of viewing IRL dating, you can easily create an emotional bond while, you know, interacting in real life. And who wants to even begin a romantic relationship with someone you have no physical attraction to? That goes for IRL or online
@@frostbite3318 Both are viable honestly but more and more people are meeting online first before they even date. Most of my friends met their SOs online first. All of them belonging to completely different social circles IRL and never would have met unless they were part of an online community outside of their IRL persona.
i think he was catfished, and the cousin was in on it, the voice on dr phil is similar but not entirely imo. happy to see the guy has processed it and moved on to a healthy life with a loving wife!
First I see you on Pikasprey's new video, then over here. That's either one heck of a coincidence or youtube's recommendations are getting more sophisticated than I thought. But it's pretty funny regardless. (You make great videos yourself btw.)
@@beingmegucaissuffering.5326 yeah it's strange seeing unrelated yourubers communicating in the comments lol. It's not so odd if they make videos in the same community - say for example, the pikaspray video you mentioned - but youtubers are just people like us and view a wide range of videos!! 😝
Kinda crazy how people had such a hard time believing this at the time, 10 years and a million episodes of catfish later we realize this shit happens all the time
I’ve talked to manti multiple times, seeing him at various places on the islands, but mostly at church events. He’s a very humble, kind, and down to earth guy, and he didn’t deserve any of this hate. It breaks my heart. I’m sure he doesn’t remember me, but I believe every word that man says, and as much as it is easy to hate on successful ppl when they fuck up- he’s a victim, straight up. Maybe not the smartest brother, but a good man nonetheless.
People think he made it up due to how long it lasted. You'd be surprised how long people have been catfished before. Love is a powerful drug, and it can cloud your judgment just as strong as any illegal drug.
I tell you what but this video is like a combination of MTV's Catfish and ESPN's movie of the week stuff. What began as an inspirational story for Manti Teo ends up being a cautionary tale for everyone dating online. P.S., How many guys named "Lenny Kakua" were embarrassed by that girlfriend hoax??
I watch a lot of Romance scam videos on RU-vid, and sadly, the older generation are simply NOT receptive to the warnings of cat fishing. They’ll figure out a way to buy Bitcoin for their scamming “boyfriend/girlfriend” to pay for oil drilling equipment or pay their commanding officer to allow travel (two of the biggest lies these scammers now tell their targets), but won’t listen to their relatives saying the person they’re talking to isn’t real.
I know a player who was right next to him when Manti got the call he said he just got a quick call and burst out crying and fell to the floor then coach Kelly gave him a hug
Does anyone else find it suspicious he could only do the female voice off camera? I mean, you’re on Dr. Phil admitting to being the catfish, but draw the line at Imitating a female voice.
I like the theory that Manti was just a clueless guy catfished by a devious homosexual because that's the funniest angle. Also I wouldn't really call this "one of the biggest controversies in sports". It's probably one of the funniest and most famous examples of "e-drama" in sports, but far worse and far more controversial things have happened.
mate devious homosexual makes him sound like a cartoon villain who twiddles his mustache and says TIME TO KILL THE STRAIGHTIES if youve gotta insult the man for being gay just call him a slur lmfao
@@DioBrandoWRYYYYYY I'm sure but why phrase it as that? It's like if I said "that thieving Chinese person", makes it weirdly charged, but maybe you wouldn't see the issue since you dismissed him as a "goofy Samoan" Cmon now
As someone whose first relationship was exclusively online for four years, I can't imagine being in such a relationship for so long without having some sort of proof of personhood of one's partner. My girlfriend and I video-chatted and called each other at least once per week, and we sent photographs every day, and we communicated through Skype and Discord almost constantly. There was never any doubt that we were both real. That said, if Manti Te'o truly is the victim in this scenario, then he must be the most naïve and oblivious young man who has ever lived.
Well I think he is the Victim to a certain extent I know that cat fishing was not no where near as spottable as it is now because we could find out immediately if someone was fake or not because we seen it time and time again but I think he was the victim for a while till the part to where the girl came out of nowhere and faked her own death and never could video chat or anything but they were talking on the phone for years and the catfish had pictures people to get in on it and voices I could see why he would believe it for this taking place from 2010 to 2014
It's the easiest scapegoat really. Cancer allows them to slowly detatch themselves from the victim if they feel like they want to leave without hurting them "too badly" (since cancer generally takes time before it kills someone), and it also allows the catfisher to keep the victim from getting too suspicious since they'll usually be too focused on the fact their "partner" now has cancer. There's also so many different types that it's hardly even questioned if it's legitimate or not. As for car accidents - that's sort of the opposite. It's a way for the manipulator to quickly get out of the relationship, but also another thing that unfortunately is so common that no one would question if it was true or not. Grief does a lot of things to people and one of them is that it causes the victim to not be thinking rationally.
Life-threatening diseases and accidents intensify feelings of obligation, make people want to help and are a good excuse for not having time for visits for instance. They also give urgency, so the relationship can progress quickly and without too much time to think about it. That is what I assume at least.
You'd be surprised how naive someone can be when they desperately want love and understanding, talking night after night for hours on end over the phone and texting all day you become so infatuated with the person you over look things you normally wouldn't....as they say, punch drunk love LOL
I remember this story. I feel so bad for this dude, especially considering it was a news story for a long time and it was a fuckin guy the entire time. People who do shit like this should be charged criminally. You’re playing with someone’s life on a national scale.
"Getting married to a real life woman" 😂 you know you've got to reevaluate your life decisions when someone describing you has to put the emphasis on the woman not being fictional!😂 this world is nuts, truly nuts. Great video man.
Ahhh, so I can't marry Hatsune Miku??? Damn...... Though one guy did do that (Just google it hah, very fun thing to read about, the guy who married Miku, or at least a copy of her).
Unrelated, but 0:33 that dude got bodied hard, holy- I've never seen anyone fly before. Also "Why would you turn to an online relationship" is such a dumb thing to ask??? You can't decide who you fall in love with... Things were so weird and different back then, it's crazy
It makes no sense for him to be scared to be outed gay but still decide to parade the "OP" story anyway. If there was any legitimacy to the idea he was gay then he'd probably wanna bury ALL OF IT. I'm sure the guy was tricked fair and square. For what purpose I don't know there's enough evidence to tell for sure.
Thats an interesting take. I mean, I hope he isnt gay because if he were that means he's still punishing himself based on his religion, which is sad. Hopefully he just got tricked while being a young dumb dude. One can hope.
Who is still afraid of coming out as gay in this day in age? Gay people today get applauded by the vast majority of society, parades in their honor, and the fawning adoration of corporate America as they switch to rainbow packaging every June.
@@jgood005 disingenuous applause from corporations doesn't put a roof over your head when your parents kick you out of the house as a minor. I've known people who have been killed for being gay. Yes, in America.
@@jgood005 the modern society is literally the smallest portion of the world....even IN a modern society there are a ton of people who are strict and religious. Plus it wasn't "nowadays" it was in the 2000s ..
There is another and even worse catfish story on the internet, the case of the Italian volleyball player Roberto Casanega who was in a catfish relationship for 15 years and spent about 700k Euros with someone faking to be the Brazilian top model Alessandra Ambrosio.
This is so inaccurate, a deeply religious kid in Polynesian culture which is also about rule following to the letter is uprooted from familiarity and dropped in the middle of a sea of white ppl in unfamiliar territory. Social media, namel FB, was just popping off and he had ppl in his life cosigning that they knew her. Even When trying topull away that evil creature played on the fact that he was genuinely a good person and came up with stories to play on his empathy. There's literally an entitled multi season show on this. Not to forget didn't a bunch of white ppl get scammed by enron, world comm, Bernie Madoff.
Has nobody watched the TV show "catfish" on MTV?? This stuff happens ALL THE TIME, and more often than not, goes on for years, usually with one person believing that they're in a real legit relationship
To me, the catfish had feelings for the player but with the player NOT being Gay and other issues, the only way he could connect would be acting as a female, this means he can talk to the player as if he was in a relationship with him (because well, he kinda is as he IS the female), this would also mean the player would talk back to him as if he likes the girl (because he does) giving that satisfaction the the catfish. As for the female voice, it is not that hard to sound like a female, even if you have a low pitched voice like myself, phone calls make things sound worse aswell not to mention people get oblivious and ignore the truth, even if they kinda know the reality is false (it is called Desperation).
I feel bad for Manti teo. He went from being a well loved athlete that people saw as a leader and respected to being viewed as a joke and gullible guy who was led on. Yeah maybe he should've pressed the issue about actually meeting this girl he was in an online relationship with face to face, but from the sounds of it the catfisher in question was pretty crafty with making up such an elaborate lie. For the life of me I can't understand why you would lead on someone for so long, act like died, still try to maintain a relationship with the guy by acting like a family member, and then mess with the guy even more and say you didn't actually die. If he didn't want to keep up the catfish persona anymore then he should've just ghosted Manti teo. The guy would've been sad to just get ghosted by someone he was starting to grow close to but that's better than being tricked into thinking someone you know is deathly ill and suddenly losing that person the same day a family member died.
I've been through a similar situation now I have permanent trust issues that have lasted years. The only difference is I wasn't looking for a relationship just wanted someone to talk to and be friends with, but I guess it was too much to ask for.
I think the people, some of whom are here in the comments, who think this is funny, much worse. I wonder if they would laugh, if it was their lonely aunt or their grandma fell for a scam? People really love to blame the victim, until they or their loved-ones are the victims.
You definitely can. I have some friends, whom I've never met in person and we've been playing DND for over ten years every week now. I have had a penpal from Belgium in for most of my childhood. (We drifted apart when we became adults and didn't have that much time for meaningful letters anymore.)
@@businessman7841 The rapist didn't have a meaningful relationship with you? Plus if you were raped, why are you talking about it? I'd keep that private because that shouldn't be a public topic. It's a sad topic.
The Lawnmower has a notorious reputation as a meat grinder if anyone is curious. It requires frequent blade changes. Do yourself a favor and get a Phillips for half as much. It is really funny when they sponsor Whang though.
Yeah this has been news for a while. He even cites interviews the player did “years later” at the end. Thanks for the hardcore attempt at being snarky though.
I'm LDS (mormon) and look. I'm almost 29, and I've never seriously dated or kissed anyone, and it's pretty embarrassing to admit this but.... truthfully? If I'm being brutally honest with myself, I would probably have been duped and taken in too, if I was in a similar situation as Manti.😬 To elaborate, I'm not stupid or anything, but I do know that I am naïve when it comes to romance, and I am well aware that I am (and, in many respects, I am glad of that too). Here in New Zealand (I don't live in Hamilton or Auckland, which explains things and iykyk), options for in-person dating is slim pickings, and most young, single adults search online for seeking others to date online, driven by a strong aspect of our faith being that marrying and having children is very important to us, and thus the drive to date/marry is not something so casual as others may consider the matter as being. I have very different standards than everyone I know here, which I am ok with, but the downside is that there just aren't many guys my age who are LDS, unmarried, have the same life goals etc and that I gel with/am attracted to (not to mention my own difficulties with social anxieties---I have asperger's, and yes, I'm painfully self concious about it). If some guy appeared knowing my religion, race, education, upbringing, etc, as well as having seemingly legit mutual friends, it would be fairly believable that a relationship could develop from as little as a few fb messages. There is another point that I wanted to make: as the church isn't large here, and those in our faith do talk and behave in a way that is difficult to explain, and also it would be, imo, pretty difficult to fake this without someone attending or exisiting within LDS church spheres, and if someone *was* talking in a way that congruent with being LDS, I would be far, far more believing/trusting, and absolutely understand if this made Manti more trusting, and possibly more willing to overlook some otherwise dubious signs it might be a catfish. This then said, I want to reiterate that (I'm honest enough with myself but also now in a space where I can actually admit that) yes, I'd likely be easily be taken for a ride if the explained context explained above had happened to me as it happened to Manti (esp. in 2013!!!), mainly because I have so little hope finding someone to date and marry here; I say this only to put my 2c opinion into the narrative..... that opinion being that yes, it's very possible Manti was really that naïve, long-distance online relationship included (as people who live in areas with small LDS populations, like me, often have no other choices but to search online for a spouse, and it's in no way unusual to meet online--and most people my age who are already married met this way). I'm sure I could be proven wrong, and the truth and details of the case could be anything and we'll probably never know the 100% truth but, really, but when people say "no-one is that naïve" well, gotta tell you, some people are just are like that---like me---and it's not that bad, it's not at all uncommon, (and I believe lonely LDS young adults are likely pretty susceptible to this sort of exploitation, sadly), and yes, you may have doubts, but being LDS myself (and growing up knowing many sweet but totally shy Samoan fob dudes 😂), I gotta tell everyone that yes: it absolutely could really be as simple as it seems. I'm glad Manti still has a career and has moved on, and I hope everyone involved has grown and changed and moved on from the whole thing, and I pray that no one reading this will ever be duped like that, because that mental load must be awful. We can't trust anyone online, and I think LDS youth are better these days, and probably less sheltered, but still, it's a timely reminder to us all that life is strange sometimes, and you might be catfished by a 280kg 6'6" Samoan rugby player pretending to be your anime waifu, so be careful out there lads 😉
I totally got the same impression. I'm not LDS, and I wasn't particularly sheltered. But I do know what it's like to grow up feeling completely different from everyone else. That kind of loneliness is more compelling than people realize. If they still think it's impossible, they're missing the empathy for people in situations unlike their own. I can imagine how hard it would be to be a different religion or culture from other people.
Wow, I respect your ability to accept your own self and maintain your high standards, I am in love with my girlfriend and our girls and so glad to have them. Hope your faith and love life do intersect and you experience the happiness we should all have.
the doubts I have (which were not addressed at all in the Netflix documentary, btw) aren't really related to the issue of being a part of a certain church or culture and having few options. What I can't understand is how a bright, articulate young man can accept that for years his girlfriend's phone is "broken" - she can't facetime, she can't record a video, she can't produce a spontaneous photo or really any photo besides the 20 or so pictures stolen from facebook. He never asks her to use someone else's phone, or a webcam? Offers to gift her a working phone? He never googles her, looks for her picture on her school's website, anything outside of social media, even out of curiosity? I also don't like the way Manti repeats how "catfishing" wasn't a thing back then, as if "pretending to be someone else" was was an alien concept to him. He had social media accounts, he had to set them up, and anyone who ever did that knows how easy it is to put in a different name, age, gender or picture. I appreciate your take, but Manti is asking too much of me.
mmmm and this is why you can't commit too hard unless you've actually met, I feel bad for the guy though, he was fully convinced and the only person that can be blamed is the catfisher. I've been catfished before, one time pretty badly, so my sympathies indeed
The most fascinating part of all this to me, is that anyone gives a shit. This is so weird to hyperfocus on someone's mysterious life, forming entire conspiracies around it. You'd never do that to a best buy employee. So it's cause....football
