Where does the crime begin...

in a situation like the Manti T'eo hoax?  Someone pretended to be someone and then pretended to have died.  Who the players in this hoax were is important, but so is the question of fraud and when does a fraud become a crime.

If I pretend to be a doctor, fake some credentials and start treating patients, I'm not just committing fraud, I'm practicing medicine without a license.  I'm defrauding my patients of their money.  But suppose I print up some business cards showing I'm a doctor.  I dummy up a website to make it look legitimate.  Then I go trolling for women in bars, passing out my card.  Single women like men with the MD after their name.  You could do the same by pretending to be a lawyer or some other well-paid profession.

Now if my intent was just to get laid, I've committed no crime.  But if my intent was to get these women to marry me so I could clean them out in a divorce, did I commit a crime?  How hard would it be to prove that intent in a court of law the first time?  It would get easier with each additional victim, but initially proving that intent wouldn't be easy.  Hey, I'm just a guy looking to get laid.  I didn't plan to marry her or get half of her money in a divorce.  Is it my fault she co-mingled her separate property?  That's on her, not me.

My point?  It shouldn't not be a crime to hold yourself out as something you're not.  The courts have ruled that lying is protected under the First Amendment, as long as your intent wasn't to defraud someone, or to earn money through the lie.  Were the fans of Notre Dame football (not that I give a damn about that particular group of fans or football program) victimized?  Did they lose any money?  No.  So it isn't a crime.

It should be.