According to US media reports, Te'o is by no means the only high-profile figure who has been targeted in a catfish-style scandal.
In December, the management of the Washington Redskins football team warned players to stay away from someone using a particular pseudonym after the person contacted four team members, saying the person's entire online identity was false, according to the NFL.com website.
The consequences of catfishing, Schwartz cautioned, can be deadly as in a 2006 scam that occurred four years before the term "catfishing" was even assigned to such online threats.
In that episode, an apparently voluptuous, wealthy blonde using the name "Samantha" developed a romance with 22-year-old Cooper Jackson after the two met online.
She failed however to show up for a face to face meeting, claiming she missed the rendezvous because she had been raped.
According to local media accounts, an enraged Jackson tracked down a man who fit "Samantha's" description of her attacker, murdered him by cutting his throat and burned his body in the woods.
Jackson's internet love "Samantha" turned out to be an overweight 22-year-old high school dropout who worked as a hotel clerk in North Carolina.
