I'll bet a lot of us have sniffed out fraud in dozens of these cases, ever since the Tawana Brawley fiasco ... which many of us knew was a hoax from the git-go. (I started a list a couple of decades ago, but forgot where I put it.)
It's gotten to the point where the default position of reporters *should* immediately be to be suspicious of an attention-seeking motive on the part of the alleged "victims'" ... and to investigate the "victims'" credibility, rather than rushing into print, credulously reporting the claims. But I have yet to see this happen.