You're NOT immune to getting scammed

Over the last few weeks, a lot of people are laughing at Manti Te'o for his online relationship with a woman that doesn't even exist!

But really, you ain't immune to getting pranked on!

Even the most street-wise, the most intellectual, the most toughest, the most whatevers, will eventually get out-smarted and humiliated, or even worse, getting scammed out of their money.

When you're desperate, that's when you become an easy target for scam artists.  When you're feeling isolated, that's when you become an easy target for scam artists.

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For example, Te'o might've felt homesick going from a mostly Polynesian community of Laie to a university located in Indiana (that would be Notre Dame). Very few people there that he might have the cultural connection. Easy to feel culturally isolated!

That made him vulnerable to his so-called "friend" who hooked Te'o up to an online relationship with a fictitious woman with a Hawaiian last name and a hapa looking photo!

This kind of prank, called "catfishing" has happened to others, it's just that Te'o just happened to be one of the top college football players about to join the NFL. Whereas others have luxury of just being humiliated in private, Te'o's humiliation became very public!

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Closer to home, the UH athletic department was also in a desperate situation. Being out in the middle of the ocean, they have extremely high travel expenses that other colleges don't have to worry about! They have facilities that need upgrading!

So yeah, trying to get a big-time superstar to do a benefit concert  sounded like a good idea!

Apparently, they contacted someone claiming to be a talent agency representing big stars like Justin Beiber, Rihanna and Stevie Wonder.  Well, that "talent agency" said Stevie Wonder is available!

Turned out that "talent agency" was bogus. All it had was a website with photos, and a small PO Box somewhere in Florida! It had ZERO connections with ANY musicians.

But it was too late, the "talent agency" got paid, UH lost $200,000!

It caused the UH Athletic Director Jim Donovan to be suspended and moved to a different position. (Donovan since left for Cal-State Fullerton). And tons of controversy, and even legislative hearings over how things are done @ UH!

All this because of desperation.

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I am sure not immune to that type of desperation!

The summer of 2011 was one of the crappiest ones ever for me!

I was laid-off from the part-time tutor position at Niu Valley Middle School. (most of the students who relied on those services were about to go on to high school, and not enough students to replace them).

I still had the sub-teaching gig, but there isn't much work for the summer!  And whereas in the previous years, I had some extra work subbing at the pre-schools, most of them have since faced hard times with declining enrollments and lay-offs!

What to do? What to do?

I went on Craig's List job ads!

A tutoring gig that paid $50 an hour? Where do  I sign up for that?

I emailed that person posting the ad! He claimed he was going to visit Hawaii from a foreign country, and would like me to help tutor his teenage son at a library!

He also said he'll also send a check ahead of time!

Too good to be true?

Yes it was!

When I deposited the check -------- RED FLAGS!

Lucky thing my bank just put a hold on checks coming from outside of Hawaii for a week. Otherwise, I might've spent $$$ that didn't even exist!

Because it turned out the check was bogus!

I contacted the banks and the police about this! Well, since I was lucky that "check" was put on hold, I didn't lose money. But since I didn't lose money, they legally couldn't do much about me being pranked on! I was just advised to e-mail the scam artist (claiming to be Timothy Largier) that the "tutoring session is cancelled and this will be the last time we ever communicate"

When I mentioned the issue to my mother, she said "you read the newspapers, you watch the news, you know this type of things go on".

True, but I got pranked on because I was desperate as hell!

So yeah, I'm more careful with Craig's List ads! I look for real work instead of BS tutoring gigs!

I'm even at the point where I don't even answer my phone if the caller ID shows a phone # I don't even recognize! This is to prevent some tele-marketing person from pulling me into his/her scam! 


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But yeah, back to the Te'o situation.  The guy who did the scam, Roniah Tuiasosopo probably thought he was having fun playing with someone else's emotions!

But fun doesn't last forever. His reputation is ruined forever.

It will be like the "boy who cried wolf".

So even if Roniah Tuiasosopo tells the truth, who's going to believe him?

That will be the hardest lesson for Roniah!

The REAL scandal at Notre Dame

Everyone's attention is on the fake woman that Manti Te'o claimed was his girlfriend.

Around the same time that Teo's real grandmother died, it was reported that Lennay Kekua (who was supposedly Teo's girlfriend) also died of leukemia.

This got Te'o tons of sympathy as his team was undefeated in the regular season and made it to the BCS bowl game. 

Now, there is some evidence that Kekua didn't even exist!

It looks like we've been scammed!


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However, there is a MUCH WORSE SCANDAL surrounding the Notre Dame football team that didn't get the attention it deserved

You see, one of Notre Dame football players raped a woman attending a nearby college! She later committed suicide!


(The following article was published last week)
http://www.thenation.com/blog/172042/notre-dame-and-penn-state-two-rape-scandals-only-one-cry-justice

As unbeaten Notre Dame prepares to play in tonight’s national championship game against Alabama, the sports media have chosen not to discuss the fact that this football team has two players on its roster suspected of sexual assault and rape; two players whose crimes have been ignored; two players whose accusers felt harassed and intimidated; two players whose presence on the field Monday night should be seen as a national disgrace.

The main reason this is taking place is because their accusers are not pressing charges. One cannot, because she is dead. Nineteen-year-old Lizzy Seeberg, a student at neighboring St. Mary’s College, took her own life after her claims of being assaulted in a dorm room were met with threats and indifference. The other accuser, despite description of a brutal rape, won’t file charges—“absolutely 100%”—because of what Seeberg experienced.

Lizzy Seeberg was a first semester freshman and from a family of Notre Dame graduates. After an evening when she socialized with members of the football team, Lizzy came forward with accusations of a sexual assault. After writing out a statement and submitting to medical attention, she received texts from another member of the team that read, “Don’t do anything you would regret” and “Messing with Notre Dame football is a bad idea.”

To show that she wouldn’t rock the boat, Lizzy was compelled by her peers to go to the next game, stencil the Notre Dame logos into her face and cheer her assaulter. As Melinda Henneberger, a Washington Post reporter and Notre Dame alum who has investigated the sexual assaults on campus extensively, wrote, “On Sept. 7, she wrote her therapist, ‘I can’t get out of this f*!#ing hole I’ve started to dig. I’m trying to go to sleep because I’m sick with a cold and need to get rest but I can’t stop thinking about taking all the pills I can find. I’m ready to check out because this sucks.’ She promised [her therapist] she would never follow through. But then, on Sept. 9, she had a panic attack during a mandatory freshman orientation on sexual assault."

That panic attack preceded her suicide. If in life Lizzy Seeberg suffered at the hands of not only players on the team but the people in power who ignored her pleas, in death these forces have gone further and slandered her to a shocking degree. They have claimed Lizzy was a “troubled girl” who was “all over the boy”, as well as mentally unstable. As Henneberger wrote, “The damage to her memory since then is arguably more of a violation than anything she reported to police — and all the more shocking because it was not done thoughtlessly, by a kid in a moment he can’t take back, but on purpose, by the very adults who heavily market the moral leadership of a Catholic institution. Notre Dame’s mission statement could not be clearer: ‘The university is dedicated to the pursuit and sharing of truth for its own sake.’ But in this case, the university did just the opposite.”

School President Reverend John I. Jenkins has shown no public regard or concern for the fact that his school has become a place where women alumni warn prospective female students that rape has become a part of campus life. Football coach Brian Kelly, to his shame, treated questions about Lizzy’s suicide as a joke.

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A real woman got raped, got intimidated by her rapist's teammates and committed suicide!


Dont you think that  is much much worse than Manti Teo's "fake girlfriend drama"

But we all want to talk about someone else's  fake girlfriend?

Notre Dame didn't take those cases seriously. The coach didn't even bother to take the issue seriously.

IF that's how they want to act, fine then, karma bit last week when they lost to Alabama!

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photo from  http://www.thenation.com/blog/172042/notre-dame-and-penn-state-two-rape-scandals-only-one-cry-justice

 Lizzy Seeberg, courtesy of the Seeberg Family

This is the REAL LIFE  woman who got raped by a Notre Dame player who couldn't take the pain anymore and committed suicide!

 If your daughter, niece, sister, mother, etc got treated the way she was treated, wouldn't you want real revenge against the rapists and the punks who sided with the rapists? Wouldn't you be pissed off that the coaches and the admin of Notre Dame didnt' give a crap?