Guess it could, but I personally believe that every such trespass will eventually be found out sooner or later. Like we say, the world is small and has a form of suitecase. :) I honestly haven't ever seen such scandals in neither of my fandoms. There has been lots of other nasty wanks, sure, but plagiarism has never been a problem. Must be luck, indeed.

I feel so sorry for authors who have been plagiarised. It could be flattering in a way, but also it must hurt like hell.