In an effort to prevent what happened to Manti Te’o, happening to any of their own players The University of Michigan Athletic Department set up a fake social media account and attempted to start a relationship with some of their own athletes at Michigan.
Kyle Rowland of Eleven Warriors first broke the story while attending a conference at Tulane where Michigan AD Dave Brandon was speaking.
Brandon had meeting with players, and the girl walked in. Athletes were shocked, but it was valuable lesson in dangers of social media.
— Kyle Rowland (@KyleRowland) February 1, 2013
On the UM catfishing: They had an attractive female contact athletes on social media. Some athlete responses were wholly inappropriate.
— Kyle Rowland (@KyleRowland) February 1, 2013
Brandon said the athletic department catfished several athletes to teach them the dangers of social networking. Very interesting.
— Kyle Rowland (@KyleRowland) February 1, 2013
In the world we live in today its easy to get caught up in the hype of social networking. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and others are a big part of the culture today and like anything it has its fall backs.
Even after everything that happened with Manti Te’o, several of the Michigan athletes were duped into believing this person was real. I think it is a lesson that all of our young athletes need to learn. Online dating is very dangerous. Not saying that it isn’t possible to find love over the internet, but you have to make sure you do all of your research and find out about someone before you believe everything they say for truth.