Lonelygirl15 exposes the Net's illogical sense of community

The recent outing of popular YouTube personality "lonelygirl15" as an out-of-work New Zealander—who lists “American and British accents” as acting skills on her resume—has prompted many to ask why we are still so trusting of what we find on the internet.

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone these days willing to respond to a Nigerian widow’s email asking for help with a bank transfer, let alone purchase medications or stock options on the cheap from a random website. So how did lonelygirl15 fool people?