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There's a good Netflix documentary about Manti Te'o, the football player who famously got catfished while he was playing at Notre Dame. It made national news when his "girlfriend" passed away. He seemed to have a good upbringing, it's wild what gullible or desperate people can get sucked into.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manti_Te'o#Catfishing_incident

Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist https://www.netflix.com/title/81580141

I watched bits and pieces of this because my wife was into it, and it was absolutely infuriating. The catfisher went to increasingly ludicrous lengths to hide the sham, including getting their cousin to take a photo holding a piece of paper with their name or the current date or something like that. And the whole time, they KNEW they were in too deep but they couldn't help themselves. It wasn't a scam for money, it was just a multi-year cry for help.

According the article Geras' profile was used to attract older divorced & widowed women, so I doubt the parents had much input.

Hope and love make people do wacky things.