Always part of the fourth hour. Have you seen lincoln . I have not. But im told its amazing 37 hes number two, by the way. Daniel day lewis. Tommie lee jones is brilliant in that film. And a hell of a nice guy i hear. Are you still winning, charlie . Today i am with you. Absolutely. Its been brilliant to see you again. Likewise. Thank you so much. Come back soon because i really enjoyed it. Youre an absolute pro. Good to see you. Weve got a very special hour ahead but first we want to get you quickly up to speed on the days headlines. First to egypt where rioting has erupted over a Court Decision sentencing 21 people to death. These 20 people were killed in clashes with Security Forces today. This all happened after the Court Sentenced the 21 for their role in a postgame soccer riot last year. More than 70 people were killed in that riot. Thousands of people marched in washington today demanding new gun control laws. It comes just days after a bill was introduced in congress that would ban assault rifles, semiautomatic weapons, and highcapacity magazines. Longtime Iowa Democratic senator tom harkin says he will not run for reelection in 2014. Harkin served ten years in the house before his election to the senate in 1984. He is 73 years old. President obama released a statement praising harkins work on health care and his efforts to help americans with disabilities. Tonight, for the entire hour, were tackling the story everyone is talking about. Youve ahead the name. Manti teo, the notre dame star manti teo is trying to explain the manti teo fake girlfriend hoax. Biggest manti mysteries. In the already strange manti teo story. And if youve heard the story youre probably a bit confused. Were going to run it all down and get some insight from those who know. The experts on this type of con. The producer of the tv show catfish. Another victim who says what happened to manti teo happened to him. And the pretty face at the center of the controversy. Her images stolen right off the internet. Its really difficult to wrap my head around this. My true identity is going to be hard to take back. Reporter shes here live with our tech pro to arm you with the tools to help prevent anything like this from ever happening to you. All right. Its a story full of unusual names, a story of a football star and the girlfriend who never existed. But its about so much more than that, and it captures so much about the way we live our lives today. Until recently, and unless you follow football, you would not have heard of manti teo. A star player at notre dame, a university that symbolizes tradition and oldschool values. Caught up in the most modern online schemes known as catfishing. The stories about his girlfriend, his online girlfriend portrayed in this photo, who supposedly died but turned out never to have lived. It has shined the light on all of us, putting on display both the very new and the very old story. The new is the way we all depend on technology. And the internet. And the relationships both personal and professional that we try to build and maintain on and offline. The old, one of the most terrifying of all. The human conditions. Im talking about loneliness. Catfishing can happen, and it has happened to lots of people. Here now, this case, how it played out. According to manti teo, he first met the person he thought was lennay kekua over facebook when he was a freshman in college. This is what he told katie couric. I knew of her. Wed speak as friends, ever since my freshman year. But it didnt start to pick up until my junior year. And it was just since i didnt meet her and i didnt see her in person and she just seemed nice and from the pictures she seemed, you know, very beautiful. Reporter a week ago teo told espn their casual friendship over facebook escalated after the fictional kekua told him her father died. They grew closer and would talk on the phone for hours, according to teo, who provided katie couric with a voicemail from the girl he thought was lennay kekua. Hey, babe, im just calling to say good night, i love you. Reporter teo says they tried multiple times to meet in person but something always stopped them. But still, he says, he never suspected anything was wrong. This lennay person, there are so many similarities. She was polynesian supposedly. Shes samoan. Im samoan. She loved her faith. Reporter in april of 2012 teo says he received a call supposedly from kekuas brother telling him she was in a coma after a bad car accident. But still, he didnt visit her. They had supposedly been in a serious relationship now for about a year. Why in the world wouldnt you go visit this girl in the hospital . I end up in san diego, which was too far for me to go to the hospital. Then i fly to l. A. , and the layover time was too short. Reporter the fictional kekua said she recovered, and teo says he jumped for joy when he heard the news. But in june, according to espn, lennay kekua told him she had leukemia. Either youre the most naive person on the planet or this is the saddest story i think ever written. I mean, at this point did you think to yourself, manti, what . Are you kidding . Now she has leukemia . I mean, it goes on and on and on. Yeah. And i thought this is how could all this happen to one person . Reporter three months later, on september 12th, teo was told his grandmother had died, and a few hours later he got a phone call from someone who says hes lennay kekuas brother. He was crying and kept screaming. And he just said, shes gone. Reporter teo then dedicated the rest of his football season to his grandmother and to lennay kekua. His coaches shared his story with the media, which along with his stellar performance on the field made him a star. But then on december 6 teo received a phone call. The voice on the other end of the phone said its lennay kekua. There was a long silent pause. And yeah. I was angered, to say the least. But you knew something was up at that point. Yes. Finally. You knew something was up. Yes. Reporter and then, even though the person he thought was lennay kekua was alive, he still spoke publicly about her death two days later. I lost both my grandparents and my girlfriend to cancer. Reporter those comments led many to believe teo was in on the hoax. If he knew the person he thought was kekua was alive, why did he say publicly she had died . Today teo told couric he was simply overwhelmed. This girl who i committed myself to died on september 12th. Now i get a phone call on december 6th saying that shes alive, and then im going to be put on national tv two days later and to ask me the same question. You know, what would you do . Reporter anderson cooper, cnn, new york. I want to introduce you now to diane omeara. Shes the woman, the real woman whose photos were used without her knowledge to portray the phony online identity of lennay kekua. Shes going to join me live after the break to share her side of the story, and throughout the hour were going to take beyond the manti teo case to get a broader view of the pitfalls of our digital world. One goes out to all the allergy muddlers. You know who you are. You can part a crowd, without saying a word. If you have yet to master the quiet sneeze. You stash tissues like a squirrel stashes nuts. Well muddlers, muddle no more. Try zyrtec®. It gives you powerful allergy relief. And zyrtec® is different than claritin® because zyrtec® starts working at hour one on the first day you take it. Claritin® doesnt start working until hour three. Zyrtec®. Love the air. Has oats that can help lower cholesterol . And it tastes good . Sure does wow. Its the honey, it makes it taste so. Well, would you look at the time. Whats the rush . Be happy. Be healthy. Can your moisturizer do that . [ female announcer ] dermatologist recommended aveeno has an oat formula, now proven to build a moisture reserve, so skin can replenish itself. Thats healthy skin for life. Only from aveeno. I just wanted to say i love and you good night and ill be okay tonight. Ill do my best. Yeah. So get your rest, and i will talk to you tomorrow. I love you so much, hon. Sweet dreams. You have no idea who the voice on the other end of the phone was for all those months . Mmhmm. Do you think ronaiah could have been playing the role of lennay . Do you think that might have been a man on the other end of the phone . Well, it didnt sound like a man. It sounded it sounded like a woman. And but if if he somehow made that voice, thats incredible. Thats an incredible talent. Such a bizarre story. Okay. So look at this photograph. This is diane omearas photo. Her photos have brought her publicity she never expected and never asked for. Thats because images like this one from her Facebook Page were used without her permission to portray the fictional girlfriend of notre dame football star manti teo. And when this story became National Headlines everyone wanted to hear from the woman who wasnt lennay kekua. Diane omeara joins me now from los angeles. Good to see you. How are you doing in the last couple of days . Hi. Good. Thank you. Its been hard. Its been a whirlwind of emotions, a whirlwind of just trying to keep as much normalcy to my life as possible. When did you suspect something was going on . Well, i was first contacted by the deadspin reporter who First Published the original story. I was contacted by him two days before the story broke, on that monday. And thats when i first heard about even manti teo. I had no idea who he was even. This is when i first realized that my identity had been stolen in this completely vulnerable way. But didnt they ask you earlier . Didnt someone contact you and ask you to take a picture with letters . You didnt suspect something then . I was contacted by ronaiah early december of 2012 ronaiah tuiasosopo, who is a High School Classmate of yours, right . Correct. Okay. It was also friends, excuse me. Also friends with manti teo. Go on. I was contacted by ronaiah early december. And since high school and Even High School i never really talked with him. I never heard from him, seen him, or spent time with ronaiah outside of the surface conversations in high school that we had. He contacted me and repeatedly messaged me on facebook saying that he urgently needs my help. Theres something that he needs my help with, that its an emergency and if i could contact him as soon as i can. You know, and i ignored it for a while. And i just finally simply messaged back asking if everything was okay. In my head im imagining since were from the same home town im imagining something terrible has happened to someone that i know, something thats happened in my home town what did he want from you . He then finally contacted me on the phone and related this story, that him and his cousin had been in a tragic car accident, and asked if i could send a photo of myself to support him and kind of comfort his cousin through this photo slide show that he was creating for his cousins birthday. But as it turns out, it was this fake he was giving the photos to manti teo and pretending to be the woman lennay kekua and it wasnt what he was saying that it was, correct . Correct. Okay. As i find out, last monday, that this was all part of this big scheme. Okay. Let me ask you this. What did he say to you . He admitted the hoax . Ronaiah called me that monday night when this was all coming to the surface for me. He admitted that he was stealing my photos for the past five years and that he created this alternate identity of lennay kekua simply because he was unsatisfied with his life and he wanted to create a life separate through my images and through my face. So he was friends with manti teo. He was friends with you. Why would he do this to a friend . Was there some sort of a what kind of relationship did he have with manti teo that would make him do this sort of hoax or this sort of trick, play this sort of trick on him . Im not clear on manti teo and ronaiahs relationship. So i cant really speak on that. As to why my face was involved in this, i have no idea. Its clear obviously that shortly after ronaiah learned about who i was in high school he began to obsess and stalk my photos clearly. What do you mean obsess and stalk your photos . Well, theres definitely an imbalance for somebody to prey on somebodys facebook profiles, and he was stealing them as quickly as i was posting them to my facebook profile, mutual friends that also were from my same high school were posting photos with me. Just as quickly as they were up, he was stealing them. And no one ever said to you, hey, theres someone else online who has your pictures . No one ever sent you photographs of this other account . No. And thats the thing, is i dont follow College Football and i dont follow girlfriends of College Football players. But even when this story came to surface, even some of my closest friends were contacting me saying, you know, check out this story. This looks like you. They couldnt even fathom that it in fact was my foeltos, it in fact was my face. Were going to have you back a little bit later on. But i have to ask you this one question. So you said you werent sure about the relationship between manti teo and tuiasosopo, right . So you dont know what kind of friends they were. And the reason im asking you that is because do you think that manti teo was in on this in some kind of way, that he knew about this hoax . You know, i cant speak about their relationship together and i cant speak on whether or not manti teo is lying. But you know, it just makes me think of what kind of state of mind that this was in and why he wouldnt want stronger closure when he did find out that all this came to surface. Okay. Thank you. Youre a very brave woman to come on and talk about this and tell the story. Its been im sure a very trying time for you. Again, shes going to be back a little bit more and talk to you about this coming up. So, i mean, who would fall for this sort of thing . Take a listen. Doctors, lawyers, law enforcement. I mean, people who are really smart. Cnn talks with a private investigator about cases just like this. And youll want to hear this. Joining me live, a man who was a victim of this too. But she loved it so much. I told her it was homemade. Everyone tells a little white lie now and then. But now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] shes right behind me isnt she . [ male announcer ] progresso. You gotta taste this soup. [ female announcer ] new roc® retinol correxion max. The power of roc® retinol is intensified with a serum. Its proven to be 4x better at smoothing lines and deep wrinkles than professional treatments. Roc® max for maximum results. Not all victims of catfishing are young or lonely or vulnerable. A lot of people who get caught up in these hoaxes are smart, savvy professionals. Cnns Deborah Feyerick says they come from all walks of life but virtually every relationship ends the same way. Reporter as crazy as it sounds, what apparently happened to notre dame Football Player manti teo happened every day. Doctors, lawyers, law enforcement. I mean, people who are really smart. Reporter private investigator dawn ricci says shes spoken to hundreds of men and women who get conned after falling deeply in love online. What is it theyre hoping for . Everybody just wants to feel needed and loved and find that romance, the wonder, the excitement of it all. The scammer just knows how to pull them into it. Reporter its called catfishing, a term popularized by the 2010 film catfish, about a man who has an online love affair with the ideal woman, who turns out not to exist. Its a scam built on trust, one email, one text, one phone call at a time over months. Or in manti teos case, perhaps years. He fell in love with a fictional character. I mean, just a thought and a fantasy in his head. Reporter ricci believes teo is like many of her clients, the target of a cruel hoax. The bottom line is that theres money. Theyll always ask for money. Reporter ricci says shes had clients and tens of thousands of dollars to pay outstanding bills or buy expensive gifts like airline tickets, jewelry. In one case a new bmw. Teo told espn he never gave money to his socalled girlfriend, though admits she wanted to send him money and asked for his Checking Account number. He says he refused to give it. Its very hard for people to accept the fact that this person doesnt exist. Nothings going to match up. Phone numbers arent going to match up. Addresses arent going to match up. You can send me to an address, and its not going to be the person. Reporter in most cases once the money dries up the scammer disappears. In manti teos case his girlfriend fakes her death. My clients are truly embarrassed of what has happened to them in their life. They dont want to talk to their friends, their family. Theyve depleted their bank account. They feel completely humiliated. Reporter humiliated and left asking questions. How could it happen in the first place . Deborah feyerick, cnn, new york. So how could it happen in the first place you . Dont have to be young or naive or gullible or a lovestruck jock to get duped by one of these online scammers. This guy has a story to tell, and he kept it to himself until he heard about manti teo. Really . Gregory crosby, a writer and a poet, a successful one he. Gregory, you got catfished. I read your article. I know exactly how you feel. He said, manti teo, i know exactly how you feel. That was the time of your article. Are you kind of embarrassed . No, im not embarrassed because its something that happened five years ago. In fact, before facebook became ubiquitous. I mean, i was embarrassed at the time and kind of messed up by it. But now im not embarrassed by it at all. So how can someone like you whos successful, whos a smart guy, be duped . And youre not alone. Many more have been duped as well. Were going to talk about that after the break. Dont go anywhere. My story was i felt was a guy who in times of hardship and in times of trial really, you know, held strong to his faith. Held strong to his family. And i felt that that was my story. Even if that hardship was perhaps exaggerated . No, it was what i went through was real. You know, the feelings. The pain. The sorrow. That was all real. Welcome back, everyone. We are back now with gregory crosby. He is proof that all catfish victims are not all starryeyed schoolboys. Hes a professor at the City University of new york and writes for Pacific Standard magazine. Gregory, you were in an exclusive online relationship with someone who was faking it. You said you were in love. How did you yes. Let that happen to you . Were you lonely in were you rebounding . What was going on . Well, id gone through a divorce. Id had an even worse rebound from the divorce. And then i moved to new york city, which as many people know is sort of a perfect cauldron of loneliness, as i put it in the essay. The person who created maella, which w