- List of hoaxes
The following are lists of
hoax es:Proven hoaxes
These are some claims that have been revealed to be deliberate public hoaxes.
This list does not include hoax articles published on or around
April 1 , a long list of which can be found in the "April Fool's Day " article.* The "Genesis" messenger of the
Publius Enigma
* SomeCrop circle s. In 1991, two English gentlemen (Doug Bower and Dave Chorley) claimed credit for the entire phenomenon, though it's widely accepted that they are just responsible for a handful of crude circles.
*George Adamski 's claims to have gone into space in UFOs. His book was based on his earlier book of fiction.
*Ray Santilli 's "Alien autopsy "
*Apollo 20 hoax , a purported joint American-Soviet manned lunar mission to retrieve ancient alien artifacts from the moon [ [http://www.revver.com/u/retiredafb/ Apollo 20 hoax videos] ] [ [http://www.angelismarriti.it/ANGELISMARRITI-ENG/REPORTS_ARTICLES/Apollo20-InterviewWithWilliamRutledge.htm Interview with Apollo 20 hoax perpetrator William Rutledge] ]
* "The Awful Disclosures ofMaria Monk ", a book about purported sexual enslavement of a nun
*Richard Bachman , apseudonym forStephen King that got out of control
*Bananadine , a fictional drug made from bananas
*Bathtub hoax , an imaginary history of the bathtub published byH.L. Mencken
* Canadians "Crossing into united states by car " email hoax
*Johann Beringer 's lying stones
*The Big Donor Show , a hoax reality television program in theNetherlands about a woman donating herkidney s to one of three people requiring a transplantation
*Jayson Blair 's plagiarized and fabricated articles for the "New York Times "
*Berners Street Hoax in 1810
*Tawana Brawley rape allegations
* Steve Brodie, who did not jump from theBrooklyn Bridge
* TheCardiff Giant , of whichP. T. Barnum made up a replica when he could not obtain the "genuine" hoax
*Andrew Carlssin , a nonexistent "time travelling" stock broker arrested for SEC violations.
*Thomas Chatterton 's "medieval" poetry
* TheCottingley Fairies
* "Death in the Air: The War Diary and Photographs of a Flying Corps Pilot", a book containing World War I Aerial combat photos that were actually models superimposed on aerial backgrounds.
*Disappearing blonde gene
*Document 12-571-3570 supposedly establishing that sex had taken place during a space mission
*Drake's Plate of Brass , accepted for 40 years as the actual plateFrancis Drake posted upon visitingCalifornia in 1579
* TheDonation of Constantine
*Hanxin , industrious and scientific hoax of a forgeryDigital signal processor
*George Dupre , who claimed to have worked for SOE
* "The Education of Little Tree ", widely acclaimed autobiography byAsa Earl Carter , later revealed to be fictional.
*Albert Einstein quotation supportingAstrology Harvcol|Hamil|2007
*Emulex hoax , a stock manipulation scheme
* Ern Malley, a fictitious poet
*Essjay controversy , a false claim of academic credentials, starting onWikipedia and continued into a "New Yorker" interview
*Fiji mermaid , the supposed remains of a half fish half human hybrid.
*The Flying Bigfoot of Florida
* SpiritualistArthur Ford 's claim of psychic contact withHarry Houdini .
* "Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood 1939-1948",Binjamin Wilkomirski 's memoirs, which were supposed to be a faithful account of his childhood in a Nazi death camp
* Furry trout
* Stephen Glass's falsified articles for "TheNew Republic "
* TheGreat Stock Exchange Fraud of 1814
* "The Hand that Signed the Paper", purportedly based on the experiences of "Helen Demidenko", actuallyHelen Darville
*Joice Heth , African-American slave exhibited byP. T. Barnum asGeorge Washington 's nurse.
* "Histoire de l'Inquisition en France ", the 1829 book by Etienne Leon de Lamonthe-Langan
* TheHitler Diaries
* TheHorn Papers
* TheHundredth Monkey , a supposed zoological behavioral phenomenon
* Idaho's name
* "Il Bambino ", asculpture created byMichelangelo but sold as a classic Greek statue.
*Clifford Irving 'sbiography ofHoward Hughes
* TheJackalope , supposedly a form ofrabbit withantlers .
*Jdbgmgr.exe virus hoax
*Anthony Godby Johnson , a nonexistent author of a hoax autobiography "A Rock and A Hard Place".
* The Lady Hope Story, a claim ofCharles Darwin 's deathbed conversion to Christianity
*Lobsang Rampa
*Enric Marco , who presented himself as a victim of the extermination camp ofMauthausen until uncovered in 2005.
*The Masked Marauders , a non-existent "super group" supposedly consisting ofBob Dylan ,Mick Jagger ,John Lennon ,Paul McCartney andGeorge Harrison . Their supposed "bootleg album" was listed in a mock review in the 18 October 1969 issue of "Rolling Stone Magazine ". An album entitled "The Masked Marauders" was shortly released, but the sound-alike musicians were later exposed to be members of The Cleanliness and GodlinessSkiffle Band. [http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/masked.htm]
*Milli Vanilli , a duo that did not sing its own songs
* The Moles' "We Are The Moles", a1967 single promoted with not-so-subtle hints that it might beThe Beatles recording under a pseudonym. It was actually recorded bySimon Dupree and The Big Sound - a 1960's UK pop group, members of whom later formed theprogressive rock bandGentle Giant .
*Mon cher Mustapha letter , a letter supposedly written by a Muslim immigrant in France, designed to stir up anti-immigrant sentiment
*Nacirema , a fictional tribe
* TheNecronomicon , a fictitiousoccult book quoted by writerH. P. Lovecraft in many of his stories.
*Ompax spatuloides Castelnau , a fish "discovered" in 1872 in Australia, made of a mullet, an eel and the head of a platypus.
* "The Works ofOssian ," "translated" byJames MacPherson
* "Our First Time ", an early popularized Internet hoax.
* The shoot-outs ofPalisade, Nevada
*Paul Is Dead (Paul McCartney death hoax)
* Theperpetual motion engines built byJohn Ernst Worrell Keely andCharles Redheffer
*Pickled dragon
*Piltdown Man , allegedly a missing link between humans and apes. It was unmasked as a hoax in 1953 after 4 decades of being accepted by the majority of scientists.
*Platinum Weird , deliberate hoax byDavid A. Stewart andKara DioGuardi about a non-existing band from 1974 promoted usingfalse advertising .
*Pope Joan - the one and only supposed femalepope .
*Princess Caraboo , aka Mary Baker
* Bot Winter of 'Bot Lies' fame
* ThePriory of Sion , a made-up secret society that plays a prominent role inthe DaVinci Code
* "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion ", a book instrumental in the surge ofantisemitism during the last hundred years.
*George Psalmanazar and his "Formosa"
*Psychic surgery
*Q33 NY , an Internet hoax based on the 9/11 event
* "A Racial Program for the Twentieth Century "
* "The Report From Iron Mountain ", a literary hoax claiming that the government had concluded that peacetime was not in the economy's best interest.
*Rosie Ruiz , who cheated in theBoston Marathon
*Audrey Seiler , 20-year-old woman who faked her own abduction inMadison, Wisconsin in 2004
* TheSkvader , a form of winged hare supposedly indigenous toSweden .
* "Songs of Bilitis ", supposed ancient Greek poems "discovered" byPierre Louÿs
* "Space Cadets ", a2005 TV programme byChannel 4 , in which contestants were fooled into thinking that they were training at a Russian space academy to become space tourists.
* The "R. E. Straith" letter sent toGeorge Adamski byJames W. Moseley (Moseley & Pflock, 2002:124-27, 331-32).
* The "Surgeon's Photo" of theLoch Ness Monster
* James Vicary's Subliminal advertising Ref harvard|Boese2002|Boese 2002:127-8|
* Tamara Rand prediction of the 1981 assassination attempt onRonald Reagan , which was actually made after the fact Ref harvard|Randi1982|Randi 1982:329|.
*Tashkent earthquake hoax , an earthquake prediction rumor.
*Thatchergate Tapes, a fake conversation with which the punk rock band Crass fooled the governments of the USA and UK.
*Robert Tilton 's "prayer cloths"
*Mary Toft , rabbit mother
*Kazuo Uzuki , April Fools Joke where Topps issued baseball card of non-existent person
*Toothing , an invented fad about people usingBluetooth phones to arrange sexual encounters
*Tourist guy , photo of a tourist at the top of theWorld Trade Center building on 9/11 with a plane about to crash in the background
*The Turk , achess -playingautomaton that actually contained a person.
* Benjamin Vanderford's video of his ownbeheading inIraq
* "Vortigern and Rowena ," a work allegedly byWilliam Shakespeare that was actually byWilliam Henry Ireland , collector of books and forger of Shakespeareana
*World Jump Day
*Laurel Rose Willson 's claims to be a survivor ofSatanic ritual abuse (asLauren Stratford ), and of theHolocaust (asLaura Grabowski )
*Wyoming Incident , supposed videos of mysteriousbroadcast signal intrusion s
*Yellowcake forgery , the false documents suggesting Iraq's Saddam Hussein was to purchase uranium from Niger
*Zzxjoanw , a fictitious word that fooled logologists for 70 years
*Frank Scully 's 1950 book "Behind the Flying Saucers", which claimed that aliens from a crashed flying saucer were being held
*Mars hoax , a yearly hoax, started in 2003, falsely claiming that at a certain dateMars will look as large as the full moon
* "Michelle Remembers ", a memoir of Satanic child abuse
*Holocaust teaching controversy of 2007 Hoax accusations
*
Apollo Moon Landing hoax accusations
*Footage that seems to depict the death of Palestinian boyMuhammad al-Durrah has been faked.
*Frank Dux claims that the movie "Bloodsport" is autobiographical
*The death ofElvis Presley .
*The death ofAndy Kaufman .
*The death of2pac .Proven hoaxes of exposure
"Proven hoaxes of exposure" are semi-comical or private
sting operation s. They usually encourage people to act foolishly or credulously by falling for patent nonsense that the hoaxer deliberately presents as reality. See also "culture jamming ".* The [http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/Arm_the_Homeless/ Arm the Homeless Coalition]
* The "Atlanta Nights " hoax
* The British television seriesBrass Eye encouraged celebrities to pledge their support to nonexistent causes, to highlight their willingness to do anything for publicity.
* The [http://notes.utk.edu/Bio/unistudy.nsf/0/78dff46a51a10457852563f0000529bc?OpenDocument Centaur from Volos] displayed at theJohn C. Hodges library at The University of Tennessee
* Carlos, a fictionalspirit medium created byJames Randi and Jose Luis Alvarez. [ [http://www.skepdic.com/carlos.html "Carlos" hoax of Jose Alvarez ] ] [http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/stoss01.htm (scroll down)]
*Crop circles
* Dihydrogen Monoxide
*Disumbrationism
*Genpet s, the bio-engineered pet creatures
*Grunge speak , an allegedslang of theSeattle rock underground, concocted by aSub Pop employee and profiled in the "New York Times "
*ID Sniper rifle , a rifle that shoots GPS chips to mark and track suspects
*TheLovelump bio-engineered sex toy
*Project Alpha - exposed poor research intopsychic phenomena
*Pacific Northwest tree octopus , byLyle Zapato
* Sina, the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals
* Media pranks ofJoey Skaggs
* TheSokal Affair
* TheTaxil hoax byLéo Taxil , poking fun atFreemasonry
* The avant-garde "music" of "Piotr Zak "
* The practice of growingBonsai Kitten s
* "Requiem for a Martian," a supposed episode of "Star Trek " that in fact was never filmed (and is unlikely to have even been written as a screenplay); supposedly it was so awful that it was suppressed after a single airing.
* TheRonnie Hazlehurst obituary - a rogue wikipedia edit was repeated by several British newspaper in obituaries, though it was completely untrue. [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ronnie_Hazlehurst&oldid=224854160/ Historic page detailing the media's gullibility] ]
* TheAC Omonia (a Cypriot football club) hoax - a rogue wikipedia entry led a journalist to mistakenly publish a fictional account of a supporters club. [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=AC_Omonia&oldid=239774003/ Historic page giving details of the hoax]Possible hoaxes
*
The Amityville Horror - ghostly events reported by the buyers of a house where another family had been murdered Ref harvard|Hines1988|Hines 1988|64-66.
* TheAshtar Galactic Command broadcast onSouthern Television
* TranceChanneling , aNew Age form ofspiritualism .
* Psychic performances ofUri Geller ref_harvard|Randi1982|Randi 1982|
*Kensington Runestone - an artifact which implies Scandinavian explorers reached the middle of North America in the 14th century
* [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/]
* TheLoudun demonic possession s of 1634 that led to the execution ofUrban Grandier forwitchcraft .
*NESARA conspiracy theory , a purported secret law undergag order by The Supreme Court, which would abolish the IRS and eliminate allcredit card debt.
*Walam Olum - alleged migration legend of theLenape people, likely perpetrated by Rafinesque
* "The Policeman's Beard is Half Constructed", book supposedly written by AI program "Racter "
* ThePhiladelphia Experiment a supposed experiment to make a ship compeltely invisible to radar even to the eye. Many factual errors have emerged and official U.S. navy records show no proof or record of the experiment ever taking place or of the ship ever having been in the alleged locations of the experiment.
*Zeno map ; Shows lands known not to exist,
* The works ofJames Frey which were at least partially fictional and have been alleged to be a complete hoax.
* Claims byEugenia Smith andAnna Anderson to beGrand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia . Smith is almost certainly a hoaxer; Anderson may have actually believed herself to be the Grand Duchess
* TheKillian documents - documents used in a60 Minutes story allegingGeorge W. Bush did not fulfill his National Guard duty requirements
* ThePatterson-Gimlin film ofBigfoot
* TheBook of Veles
* TheBuddha Boy - a meditating boy of apparently superhuman perseverance
*Mel's Hole - a pit alleged to be bottomless
*Josef Papp 's solo thirteen hour trans-Atlantic submarine voyage
* Philippine historical figureKalantiaw
* TheVinland map - alleged medieval map of the "New World"
* TheVoynich Manuscript - a mysterious book in an unknown and never-translated language
*John Titor 'stime travel ling claims
*Zinoviev Letter - alleges a socialist conspiracy between the Soviet Union and British Labour Party
*Metallic Metals Act - a study that may not have actually been conducted about a fictional piece of legislation; the study is still cited in textbooks
*Natasha Demkina - Russian woman who claims to have x-ray vision
*Rendlesham Forest Incident - possible hoax
* TheTasaday tribePractical joke hoaxes
*
Alternative 3 - a British conspiracy theory documentary broadcast in 1977
*The Balloon-Hoax
* The "British Arctic Territory" flag [http://www.fotw.net/flags/gb!bat.html]
* TheDreadnought hoax
* Peter Jackson'sForgotten Silver
* TheFortsas hoax , a purported auction of one-of-a-kind books in 1840 inBelgium .
* "I, Libertine ," originally nonexistent book
* "Naked Came the Stranger "- a purposely horribly-written novel
*Plainfield Teacher's College and itsfootball team
*Sawing off of Manhattan Island
*Society for Indecency to Naked Animals - ("A nude horse is a rude horse")
* The spaghetti tree harvest was a hoax broadcast by the BBC in 1957.
*Christopher Walken for US president. [http://www.walkenforpres.com/]Known pranksters, scam artists and impostors
*
Frank Abagnale , professional impostor and check forger
*Alan Abel , US professional hoaxer
*Jim Bakker , Evangelist
*P. T. Barnum , US showman known for his sensational hoaxes
*Sacha Baron Cohen , British comedian and media prankster - a.k.a.Ali G andBorat Sagdiyev
*Pablo Belmonte , Spanish video editor known for hisNintendo -related hoax videos (Nintendo On ,Super Mario Galaxy DS, etc.)
*Jorge Luis Borges , Argentinian writer who often included references to nonexistent books and authors in his works
*Horace de Vere Cole , British aristocrat
*Jeanne Dixon , a self-proclaimedpsychic .
*Benjamin Franklin , American patriot, scientist and publisher
*William Randolph Hearst , a newspaper tycoon known as "the father ofyellow journalism ".
*Danny Hellman , NY cartoonist sued for impersonatingTed Rall in e-mails
*Benny Hinn ,faith healer
*Elmyr de Hory , art forger
*Brian G. Hughes , US banker
* Reginald Jones, British professor
*Andy Kaufman , US comedian and inter-gender wrestling champion
*M. Lamar Keene , Self-exposed fraudulent medium
* J. Z. Knight, trance channeller who claims to contact an entity calledRamtha
*Victor Lustig , professional con artist
* Jim Moran, publicist, actor and TV panellist
* Chris Morris, British comedian and actor of "Brass Eye ", "The Day Today "
*Frederick Emerson Peters , professional impostor and check forger
*Charles Ponzi , originator of the Ponzi Scheme
*Peter Popoff ,Faith healer
*George Psalmanazar , European writer
*James Randi , professional stage magician, hoaxer and hoax debunker
*James Reavis , professional forger and impostor
*Harry Reichenbach , Hollywood publicist
*Joey Skaggs , US media prankster
*Soapy Smith , Jefferson Randolph Smith, infamous 19th century confidence man
*Edward Askew Sothern , British actor
*Robert B. Stein , formerUFO photographer and debunker of photographic hoaxes
*Jonathan Swift , British humorist and writer
*Robert Tilton , Evangelist
*Hugh Troy , US painter
*Dick Tuck , US political prankster who harassedRichard Nixon .
*Wilhelm Voigt , the "Captain of Köpenick"
*Mike Warnke , Evangelist and supposed former Satanic High Priest
*Joseph Weil , professional scam artist
*Stanley Clifford Weyman , professional impostorJournalistic hoaxes
Deliberate hoaxes, or
journalistic fraud , that drew widespread attention include:*
Jayson Blair , reporter for "The New York Times "
*Janet Cooke , who won thePulitzer Prize for her fictitious "Washington Post" story about an eight-year-oldheroin addict named Jimmy
* Stephen Glass, reporter for "The New Republic "
* TheGreat Moon Hoax of 1835
*Great Wall of China hoax of 1899
*Jack Kelley , longtime "USA Today " correspondent
*The New York Zoo hoax of 1874
*Nik Cohn 's "New York" magazine article, "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night ", which was the source material for the movie "Saturday Night Fever ", and which Cohn admitted decades later had been fiction, not reportage.
* TheFlemish Secession hoax of 2006 [http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Fictional_documentary_about_Flemish_independence_causes_consternation_in_Belgium]
*Dark Side of the Moon (documentary) - this French mockumentary "proving" that the Apollo moon landings were hoaxes is itself an admitted hoax
*Konspiration 58 about the soccer world cup of 1958.
* David Manning, a ficitious film critic created bySony in order to place good quotes onColumbia Pictures ' film advertising.
*Fuckart & Pimp a hoax art exhibition at London'sDecima gallery , which purported to be the show of a female artist having sex with clients to consummate the sale of her paintings, created a world-wide media scandal but was later revealed to be a hoax.References
Notes
* cite book
author =Alex Boese
title = The Museum of Hoaxes: A Collection of Pranks, Stunts, Deceptions, and Other Wonderful Stories Contrived for the Public from the Middle Ages to the New Millennium
publisher =Dutton /Penguin Books
year = 2002
isbn = 0-525-94678-0
oclc = 50115701* Boese, Alex, "Hippo Eats Dwarf: A Field Guide to Hoaxes and other B.S.", Harvest Books 2006, ISBN 0-15-603083-7.
* citation
last = Hamel |first = Denis
year = 2007
month = November
title = The End of the Einstein-Astrology-Supporter Hoax
journal =Skeptical Inquirer
volume = 31
issue = 6
pages = 39–43
doi =
id =
url =
format =
accessdate =*note label|Hines1988|Hines 1988| cite book
author =Terence Hines
title = Pseudoscience and the Paranormal: A Critical Examination of the Evidence
publisher = Prometheus Books
year = 1988
isbn = 0-87975-419-2
oclc = 17462273*
James W. Moseley andKarl T. Pflock , (2002). "Shockingly Close to the Truth: Confessions of a Grave-Robbing Ufologist",Prometheus Books , ISBN 1-57392-991-3
*Curtis Peebles (1994). "Watch the Skies: A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth",Smithsonian Institution , ISBN 1-56098-343-4.* cite book
last = Randi
first = James
authorlink = James Randi
year = 1982
title = Flim-Flam!
publisher =Prometheus Books
isbn=0-87975-198-3
oclc = 9066769ee also
*
Beale Ciphers (alleged location of hidden treasure)
*Lost Dutchman Mine (alleged location of hidden treasure)
*Oak Island (alleged location of hidden treasure)
*List of fictitious people (people it was claimed really existed – unlikefictional character s).
*Scam External links
* [http://www.museumofhoaxes.com Museum of hoaxes - A collection of hoaxes]
* [http://www.snopes.com Snopes - A database about urban legends]
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