Hoax

The trail cam photo of the "ghost girl in the woods" has everyone talking, but is it real? Late lead says perhaps not.

Manti Te'o tried to put one of the strangest sports stories in memory behind him, insisting he was the target of an elaborate online hoax in which he fell for a fake woman created by pranksters, then admitting his own lies made the bizarre ordeal worse.

By now you've seen the stories. Notre Dame star linebacker Manti Te'o has been involved in a hoax about a dead internet girlfriend that never existed. But why is this story dominating not only sports talk but the nightly news?