You may have already heard the story of Notre Dame’s Manti Te’O, a guy who seemed to beat quite a few odds: he was Mormon at a Catholic school, and had suffered the loss of both his grandmother and his beautiful girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, of leukemia all within a few hours back in September. It was a tragic, moving story, giving Te’O’s performance on the field even more meaning, and leading him to nearly win this year’s Heisman Trophy.

However, after some suspicious moves, the team at Deadspin decided to investigate the story, and found some very shocking news – not only was Lennay Kekua not dead, but she never even existed. The only evidence of her “life” was a Twitter page that featured pictures of a 22-year-old California woman who is not named Lennay, and has never met Te’O in her life. There are no official reports of her death, and no one by her name has ever attended Stanford University. So begins the crazy, cringe-inducing story of fake identities and the news outlets that fells for them hook, line, and sinker.

The weirdest part of the story, we’d say, is the addition of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, a supposed friend of Te’O’s, whose family and friends claim has made up the “Lennay” character before to prank other friends. In this case, though, the fake relationship had lasted almost a year, leading most people to believe that Te’O was in on the fraud and was milking the story for publicity – and it worked like a charm.

That’s the big question now: was Manti Te’O scammed by a heartless, humiliating, and cruel prank that left him devastated and pushed him to play some of the best games of his life? Or was he just a great football player who let a little fib get out of hand, until it spiraled out of control and propelled him to fame? We may never really know the truth.

What we do know, is that in a world where people are able to concoct fully believable personas online, you’ve gotta be alert, aware, and unblinded by love (or lust). On our dating site or any other, remember – the goal is to meet in person. It may not be shyness that keeps someone from meeting in real life, but instead something much, much creepier.