List of hoaxes

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The following are lists of hoaxes:

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.

A-F

George Adamski's claims to have gone into space in UFOs. His book was based on his earlier book of fiction.
Alien autopsy hoax film by Ray Santilli
Amina Abdallah Arraf al Omari, a fake Syrian blogger
The Archko Volume, a collection of documents related to the life of Jesus.
Avirginsplea.com, a website that was part of a viral marketing experiment (2006).
The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, a book about purported sexual enslavement of a nun
The balloon boy hoax – a boy reported to be traveling at high altitudes in a home-made helium balloon was later discovered to be hiding in the attic of his house
Bananadine, a fictional drug made from bananas
Bathtub hoax, an imaginary history of the bathtub published by H.L. Mencken
Berners Street Hoax in 1810
Johann Beringer's "lying stones"
Franz Bibfeldt, a fictitious theologian originally invented to provide a footnote for a divinity school student, which later became an in-joke among academic theologians.
The Big Donor Show, a hoax reality television program in the Netherlands about a woman donating her kidneys to one of three people requiring a transplantation
Biggest Drawing in the World, Erik Nordenankar's "drawing" of a self-portrait over the entire world using a GPS receiver^[1]
Jayson Blair's plagiarized and fabricated articles for the New York Times
C.W. Blubberhouse, whose letters in UK national newspapers were exposed as a hoax by the Sunday Times
Steve Brodie, who did not jump from the Brooklyn Bridge
Bruno Banani, Tongan luger who, as a marketing ploy, was renamed after a lingerie firm, while insisting it was his real name
Calaveras Skull
The Cardiff Giant, of which P. 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
The Col de Vence Medusa
The Shakespeare discoveries of John Payne Collier
The Cottingley Fairies
Crop circles. English pranksters Doug Bower and Dave Chorley claimed they started the phenomenon, and hundreds of "copycat" circles have been fabricated since by other hoaxers.
Donald Crowhurst who entered the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in an attempt to become the first person to single-handedly sail around the world non-stop. Instead he abandoned the race early on but continued to report false positions in an attempt to make it appear as if he was still competing.
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
The Donation of Constantine
Drake's Plate of Brass, accepted for 40 years as the actual plate Francis Drake posted upon visiting California in 1579
George Dupre, who claimed to have worked for SOE
The Education of Little Tree, widely acclaimed autobiography by Asa Earl Carter, later revealed to be fictional.
Albert Einstein quotation supporting Astrology (Hamel 2007)
Emulex hoax, a stock manipulation scheme
The English Mercurie, a literary hoax purporting to be the first English language newspaper.
Ern Malley, a fictitious poet
Essjay controversy, a false claim of academic credentials, starting on Wikipedia and continued into a New Yorker interview
The False Decretals
Fiji mermaid, the supposed remains of a half fish half human hybrid.
Sidd Finch, fictional baseball player^[2]
Spiritualist Arthur Ford's claim of psychic contact with Harry 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

G-M

Stephen Glass's falsified articles for The New Republic
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia claims by Eugenia Smith and Anna Anderson
The Great Stock Exchange Fraud of 1814
Gundala (film) a super hero movie that was promoted on the web despite the fact that it did not exist
The Hand that Signed the Paper, purportedly based on the experiences of "Helen Demidenko", actually Helen Darville
Hanxin, industrious and scientific hoax of a forgery Digital signal processor
Recordings allegedly made by the pianist Joyce Hatto
Jimi Hendrix supposed recording of the Welsh National Anthem – see The Red Dragonhood
Joice Heth, African-American slave exhibited by P. T. Barnum as George Washington's nurse.
The Historia Augusta, a fictionalized collection of Roman imperial biographies, written in the late fourth century under the names of six third and early fourth century historians.
Histoire de l'Inquisition en France, the 1829 book by Etienne Leon de Lamonthe-Langan
The Hitler Diaries
The Horn Papers
The hundredth monkey effect, a supposed zoological behavioral phenomenon
Idaho's name
Il Bambino, a sculpture created by Michelangelo but sold as a classic Greek statue.
The Ireland Shakespeare forgeries, a collection of Shakespeare-related documents supposedly discovered by William Henry Ireland and published in 1795 by his father, Samuel Ireland; the discoveries included a "lost" play, Vortigern and Rowena
Clifford Irving's biography of Howard Hughes
The Jackalope, supposedly a form of rabbit with antlers.
The Jacko hoax a supposed gorilla or sasquatch caught near Yale, British Columbia in 1884.
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 of Charles Darwin's deathbed conversion to Christianity
Lobsang Rampa
Fred Lorz 1904 Olympic Marathon.
Enric Marco, who presented himself as a victim of the extermination camp of Mauthausen until uncovered in 2005.
Mars hoax, a yearly hoax, started in 2003, falsely claiming that at a certain date Mars will look as large as the full moon
The Masked Marauders, an album issued by a Warner Bros. Records subsidiary that reportedly featured a jam session between Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The perpetrator: Rolling Stone magazine.
Memorial Heroes of Chernobyl – fake chess tournament
Michelle Remembers, a memoir of Satanic child abuse
The Microsoft hoax, a 1994 hoax claiming that Microsoft had acquired the Roman Catholic Church. The hoax is considered to be the first hoax to reach a mass audience on the Internet.
Internet reports that the Military Personnel Records Center was destroying paper records (2004)
The Moles' "We Are The Moles", a 1967 single promoted with not-so-subtle hints^[who?] that it might be The Beatles recording under a pseudonym. It was actually recorded by Simon Dupree and the Big Sound – a 1960s UK pop group, members of whom later formed the progressive rock band Gentle Giant.
Mon cher Mustapha letter, a letter supposedly written by a Muslim immigrant in France, designed to stir up anti-immigrant sentiment
My 61 Memorable Games, a fake version of My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer

N-S

Ompax spatuloides Castelnau, a fish "discovered" in 1872 in Australia, made of a mullet, an eel and the head of a platypus.
The Works of Ossian, "translated" by James MacPherson
"Our First Time", an early popularized Internet hoax.
Edward Owens (hoax), perpetrated on the English-language Wikipedia in 2008 by a class at George Mason University.
The Pacific Northwest tree octopus (Octopus paxarbolis)
The shoot-outs of Palisade, Nevada
Paul is dead (Paul McCartney death hoax)
The perpetual motion engines built by John Ernst Worrell Keely and Charles Redheffer
Pickled dragon
Piltdown Man
Platinum Weird, deliberate hoax by David A. Stewart and Kara DioGuardi about a non-existing band from 1974 promoted using false advertising.
Pope Joan – the one and only supposed female pope.
Princess Caraboo, aka Mary Baker
The Priory of Sion, a made-up secret society that plays a prominent role in The DaVinci Code
Progesterex, a date rape drug.
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a book instrumental in the surge of antisemitism 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
Tamara Rand prediction of the 1981 assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, which was actually made after the fact (Randi 1982:329).
Rejecting Jane chronicles the rejection by publishing houses of the opening chapters of Jane Austen novels submitted to them under a pseudonym by British writer David Lassman.
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 the Boston Marathon
Frank Scully's 1950 book Behind the Flying Saucers, which claimed that aliens from a crashed flying saucer were being held
"Seriously McDonalds", a viral photograph apparently showing racist policies introduced by McDonald's.^[3]
The Skvader, a form of winged hare supposedly indigenous to Sweden.
Songs of Bilitis, supposed ancient Greek poems "discovered" by Pierre Louÿs
Space Cadets, a 2005 TV programme by Channel 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 to George Adamski by Gray Barker and James W. Moseley (Moseley & Pflock 2002:124–27,331–32).
James Vicary's Subliminal advertising (Boese 2002:127–8)
The "Surgeon's Photo" of the Loch Ness Monster
SETI: Pearl Harbor Hoax of 2002^[4]
SETI: EQ Pegasus Hoax of 1998^[5]

T-Z

Manti Te'o girlfriend hoax
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"
John Titor's time travelling claims
Mary Toft, rabbit mother
Toothing, an invented fad about people using Bluetooth phones to arrange sexual encounters
Tourist guy, fake photo of a tourist at the top of the World Trade Center building on 9/11 with a plane about to crash in the background
Trodmore Racecourse, a fictitious Cornish race meeting.
The Turk, a chess-playing automaton that actually contained a person.
Tuxissa, a computer virus hoax.
Benjamin Vanderford's beheading video
Villejuif leaflet, a pamphlet distributed in Europe with claims of various food additives having carcinogenic effects.
Southern Television broadcast interruption hoax (1977), hoax message inserted into an IBA broadcast in the United Kingdom on 26 November 1977.
David Weiss a non existing person that was used by the Jerusalem Post as a source.
Laurel Rose Willson's claims to be a survivor of Satanic ritual abuse (as Lauren Stratford), and of the Holocaust (as Laura Grabowski)
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

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Proven hoaxes of exposure

"Proven hoaxes of exposure" are semi-comical or private sting operations. 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 Atlanta Nights hoax
The British television series Brass Eye encouraged celebrities to pledge their support to nonexistent causes, to highlight their willingness to do anything for publicity.
The Centaur from Volos displayed at the John C. Hodges library at The University of Tennessee
Carlos, a fictional spirit medium created by James Randi and Jose Luis Alvarez.
Crop circles
Dihydrogen monoxide hoax
Disumbrationism
The 2008 Frozen Bigfoot Hoax, two men claimed to have the frozen body of a bigfoot, which attracted attention from numerous major news outlets.
Genpets, the bio-engineered pet creatures
Grunge speak, an alleged slang of the Seattle rock underground, concocted by a Sub Pop employee and profiled in the New York Times
ID Sniper rifle, a rifle that shoots GPS chips to mark and track suspects
The Lovelump bio-engineered sex toy
Project Alpha – exposed poor research into psychic phenomena
Pacific Northwest tree octopus, by Lyle Zapato
Sina, the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals
Nat Tate, an imaginary artist, about whom a biography was published in 1998 by William Boyd intended to temporarily fool the art world
Media pranks of Joey Skaggs
The Sokal affair
The Taxil hoax by Léo Taxil, poking fun at the Roman Catholic Church's attitude toward Freemasonry
The avant-garde "music" of "Piotr Zak"
The practice of growing Bonsai Kittens
January 2009 Quadrant Hoax
The "Commercial Whaling New Zealand" spokesman Jay Pryor on TVNZ Breakfast

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Possible hoaxes

The Amityville Horror – ghostly events reported by the buyers of a house where another family had been murdered ( & Hines 1988:64–66).
Ghost Hunters – during a televised live Halloween special on October 31, 2008 Grant Wilson of The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) is widely believed to have been part of a hoax involving a coat pull incident that has been debunked and believed to have been rigged. (Ghost_Hunters#Criticism)
Lake Anjikuni – mysterious disappearance of Eskimos
The Southern Television broadcast interruption hoax (1977)
The Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film
The Buddha Boy – a meditating boy of apparently superhuman perseverance
Trance Channeling, a New Age form of spiritualism.
Concordia (1696 ship), an early Dutch sailing ship that went missing.
Gerrit Blank, a teenager claimed to have been struck by a pea size meteorite.
Natasha Demkina – Russian woman who claims to have x-ray vision
The works of James Frey which were at least partially fictional and have been alleged to be a complete hoax.
Psychic performances of Uri Geller
Kensington Runestone – an artifact which implies Scandinavian explorers reached the middle of North America in the 14th century
The Killian documents – documents used in a 60 Minutes story alleging George W. Bush did not fulfill his National Guard duty requirements
The Loudon demonic possession of 1634 that led to the execution of local priest Urban Grandier for witchcraft.
The Manoppello Image
Mel's Hole – a pit alleged to be bottomless
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
NESARA conspiracy theory, a purported secret law under gag order by Supreme Court of the United States, which would abolish the IRS and eliminate all credit card debt.
Walam Olum – alleged migration legend of the Lenape people, likely perpetrated by Rafinesque
The Philadelphia Experiment, a supposed experiment to make a ship completely invisible to radar and 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.
The Policeman's Beard is Half Constructed, book supposedly written by AI program Racter
Josef Papp's solo thirteen hour trans-Atlantic submarine voyage
Philippine historical figure Kalantiaw
Rendlesham Forest incident – possible hoax
Chief Seattle's speech
The Tasaday tribe
The Book of Veles
The Vinland map – alleged medieval map of the "New World"
The Voynich manuscript – a mysterious book in an unknown and never-translated language
The Well to Hell hoax – an urban legend that may have started either as a hoax or a misunderstanding
Zinoviev letter- alleges a socialist conspiracy between the Soviet Union and British Labour Party
Zeno map – shows lands known not to exist
Qaher-313 – Iranian fighter aircraft or hoax

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Practical joke hoaxes

Alternative 3 – a British conspiracy theory documentary broadcast in 1977
The Balloon-Hoax
The "British Arctic Territory" flag ^[6]
The Dreadnought hoax
Peter Jackson's Forgotten Silver
The Fortsas hoax, a purported auction of one-of-a-kind books in 1840 in Belgium.
I, Libertine, originally nonexistent book
Naked Came the Stranger- a purposely horribly-written novel
Plainfield Teacher's College and its football 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.

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Accidental hoaxes

"Accidental hoaxes" are not strictly hoaxes at all, but rather satirical articles or fictional presentations that ended up being taken seriously by some.

Ghostwatch, a BBC television play broadcast on Halloween in 1992, was on its surface a live outside broadcast from a haunted house presented by well-known television personalities. Despite appearing in a drama slot and having a credit for a writer, viewers afterwards complained about being fooled.^[7]
The Masked Marauders, a non-existent "super group" supposedly consisting of Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George 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 Godliness Skiffle Band.^[8]
The Necronomicon, a fictitious occult book quoted by writer H. P. Lovecraft in many of his stories.
Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre on the Air radio broadcast on October 30, 1938, entitled The War of the Worlds has been called the "single greatest media hoax of all time", although it was not — Welles said — intended to be a hoax. The broadcast was heard on CBS radio stations throughout the United States. Despite repeated announcements within the program that it was a work of fiction, many listeners tuning in during the program believed that the world was being attacked by invaders from Mars. (Rumors claim some even committed suicide.) Rebroadcasts in South America also had this effect even to a greater extent.^[9]

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Religion related hoaxes

Main article: List of religious hoaxes

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Known pranksters, scam artists and impostors

Frank Abagnale, professional impostor and check forger
Alan Abel, US professional hoaxer
P. T. Barnum, US showman known for his sensational hoaxes
Sacha Baron Cohen, British comedian and media prankster – a.k.a. Ali G and Borat Sagdiyev
Pablo Belmonte, Spanish video editor known for his Nintendo-related hoax videos (Nintendo On, Super Mario Galaxy DS, etc.)
Philippe de Chérisey, forged two parchments as part of the Priory of Sion hoax
Horace de Vere Cole, British aristocrat
Noël Corbu, French restaurateur who claimed that Bérenger Saunière discovered the treasure of Blanche of Castile in the village of Rennes-le-Château
Benjamin Franklin, American patriot, scientist and publisher
Rémi Gaillard, modern French prankster with a wide internet presence
Uri Geller
William Randolph Hearst, a newspaper tycoon known as "the father of yellow journalism".
Danny Hellman, NY cartoonist sued for impersonating Ted Rall in e-mails
Elmyr de Hory, art forger
L. Ron Hubbard, science fiction author
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 called Ramtha
Victor Lustig, professional con artist
Jim Moran, publicist, actor and TV panellist
Chris Morris, British comedy writer and performer, particularly famous for his satires on the news media
Frederick Emerson Peters, professional impostor and check forger
Charles Ponzi, originator of the Ponzi Scheme
Peter Popoff, faith healer
Pierre Plantard, claimed descent from Dagobert II
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
George Steevens, critic and Shakespeare scholar
Jonathan Swift, Irish humorist and writer
Robert Tilton, evangelist
Hugh Troy, US painter
Dick Tuck, US political prankster who harassed Richard 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 impostor
Yes Men, culture-jamming pranksters

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Journalistic hoaxes

Deliberate hoaxes, or journalistic fraud, that drew widespread attention include:

Washington Irving created a hoax about the supposedly missing Diedrich Knickerbocker
Jayson Blair, reporter for The New York Times
Janet Cooke, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her fictitious Washington Post story about an eight-year-old heroin addict named Jimmy
Dark Side of the Moon (documentary) – this French mockumentary "proving" that the Apollo moon landings were hoaxes is itself an admitted hoax
The Flemish Secession hoax of 2006^[10]
Stephen Glass, reporter for The New Republic
Fuckart & Pimp a hoax art exhibition at London's Decima gallery, which purported to be the show of a female artist having sex with clients to consummate the sale of her paintings, created a worldwide media scandal but was later revealed to be a hoax.
The Great Moon Hoax of 1835
Great Wall of China hoax of 1899
Jack Kelley, longtime USA Today correspondent
David Lassman who wrote the 2007 'Rejecting Jane' article, which chronicled Jane Austen's rejection by modern day publishers.
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.
Konspiration 58 about the soccer world cup of 1958.
David Manning, a fictitious film critic created by Sony in order to place good quotes on Columbia Pictures' film advertising.