[5] Three notable cases where this issue arose: In 2008, it was reported that a Massachusetts woman unknowingly had sex with her boyfriend's brother in the dark basement that she was sleeping in.
Boro (pretending to be "Dr. Stevens") said that he had the results of her blood test and that she had contracted a dangerous, extremely infectious and possibly deadly disease from using public toilets.
The first option he told her about was an extremely painful surgical procedure (which he described in graphic detail) that would cost $9,000 and require a six-week hospital stay that would not be covered by insurance.
Boro used no physical force and his victim knowingly allowed him to have sex with her because she believed (falsely) that her life was threatened if she did not receive this "treatment".
[17] The California Legislature subsequently amended the rape statute in 1986 to include that a rape does in fact occur when a victim is not aware of the essential characteristics of the act (the sexual intercourse) due to the perpetrator's fraudulent representation that the sexual act served a professional purpose.
[18] In Norwalk, California, on February 20, 2009, Julio Morales sneaked into a sleeping 18-year-old woman's darkened bedroom after he saw her boyfriend leave.
The two bills quickly passed both houses without one dissenting vote and were signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown on September 9, 2013.
[22] In 2010, a conviction of rape by deception drew international attention when it was first reported that a man deceived a woman into consensual sex within ten minutes of their first meeting by, according to the amended indictment, lying about being Jewish, unmarried, and interested in a long-term relationship.
[24][25]) However, it was later reported that the charge had actually been the result of a plea bargain with the defendant in what had originally been a rape-by-force case where the records were sealed by the judge to protect the identity of the victim and avoid the cross-examination of her.
Sabbar Kashur, an Israeli Arab Muslim resident of Jerusalem who was married with two children, accepted a plea bargain and an 18-month sentence on the reduced charge of rape by deception in 2010 after a period of incarceration and house arrest.
[26] Prosecutors agreed to the plea bargain in order to spare the woman a long cross-examination that might undermine her evidence.
[25] According to an article by University of Alberta Law faculty member Florence Ashley there is much debate surrounding the topic of transgender people who have sex with partners who are unaware of their trans identity, and whether this is categorized as rape by deception.
[31] Similarly to arguments for bathroom bills, some feminist activists, especially gender critical feminists, claim that the legalisation of gender self-identification will result in cisgender people claiming a transgender identity in order to deceive a sexual partner who, due to their sexual orientation/preferences, would be otherwise unattainable, further complicating the matter.
[32]The 1984 film Revenge of the Nerds had the protagonist Lewis Skolnick engage in rape by deception after witnessing the character of Betty being turned down for sex by her boyfriend Stan during a costume party-themed charity event.