This timeline of the Manti Te’o hoax appears to begin when Tessi Toluta’u, a Polynesian beauty queen, says she was contacted by “Lennay Kekua” in 2008 in what she now believes was a “catfish” scam.
Te’o, Notre Dame’s star linebacker, began his online relationship with “Kekua” sometime in 2009. But he wasn’t the first person to be contacted online by the fictitious woman.