List of hoaxes

Last updated

The following is a list of hoaxes:

Exposure hoaxes

These types of hoaxes are semi-comical or private "sting operations" intended to expose people. They usually encourage people to act foolishly or credulously by falling for patent nonsense that the hoaxer deliberately presents as reality.

Contents

Journalistic hoaxes

Deliberate hoaxes or journalistic scandals that have drawn widespread attention include:

Other hoaxes

This list does not include hoax articles published on or around April 1, a long list of which can be found in the List of April Fools' Day jokes article.

A–C

D–F

G–I

J–M

N–P

Q–S

T–Z

0–9

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoax</span> Widespread deliberate fabrication presented as truth

A hoax is a widely publicised falsehood created to deceive its audience with false and often astonishing information, with the either malicious or humorous intent of causing shock and interest in as many people as possible.

Majestic 12, also known as Majic-12, and MJ-12 for short, is a purported organization that appeared in fake documents first circulated by ufologists in 1984, and that some UFO conspiracy theories still claim to have existed. The organization is claimed to be the code name of an alleged secret committee of scientists, military leaders, and government officials, formed in 1947 by an executive order by U.S. President Harry S. Truman to facilitate recovery and investigation of alien spacecraft. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) declared the documents to be "completely bogus", and many ufologists consider them to be an elaborate hoax. Majestic 12 remains popular among some UFO conspiracy theorists and the concept has appeared in popular culture including television, film, video games, and literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cardiff Giant</span> 1869 American archaeological hoax

The Cardiff Giant was one of the most famous archaeological hoaxes in American history. It was a 10-foot-tall (3.0 m), roughly 3,000 pound purported "petrified man", uncovered on October 16, 1869 by workers digging a well behind the barn of William C. "Stub" Newell, in Cardiff, New York. He covered the giant with a tent and it soon became an attraction site. Both it and an unauthorized copy made by P. T. Barnum are still being displayed. P.T. Barnum's is on display at Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

Fictitious or fake entries are deliberately incorrect entries in reference works such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps, and directories, added by the editors as copyright traps to reveal subsequent plagiarism or copyright infringement. There are more specific terms for particular kinds of fictitious entry, such as Mountweazel, trap street, paper town, phantom settlement, and nihilartikel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Moon Hoax</span> Fake series in the New York newspaper The Sun in 1835

The "Great Moon Hoax", also known as the "Great Moon Hoax of 1835" was a series of six articles published in The Sun, beginning on August 25, 1835, about the supposed discovery of life and civilization on the Moon. The discoveries were falsely attributed to Sir John Herschel and his fictitious companion Andrew Grant.

<i>F for Fake</i> 1974 film by Orson Welles

F for Fake is a 1973 docudrama film co-written, directed by, and starring Orson Welles who worked on the film alongside François Reichenbach, Oja Kodar, and Gary Graver. Initially released in 1974, it focuses on Elmyr de Hory's recounting of his career as a professional art forger; de Hory's story serves as the backdrop for a meandering investigation of the natures of authorship and authenticity, as well as the basis of the value of art. Far from serving as a traditional documentary on de Hory, the film also incorporates Welles's companion Oja Kodar, hoax biographer Clifford Irving and Orson Welles as himself. F for Fake is sometimes considered an example of a film essay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Literary forgery</span> Literary work which is deliberately misattributed to a historical or invented author

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Death hoax</span> False report of a persons death

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A racial hoax occurs when a person falsely claims that a crime was committed by member of a specific race. The crime may be fictitious, or may be an actual crime.

The following outline is provided as an overview and topical guide to forgery:

Students of George Mason University, as part of T. Mills Kelly's course, "Lying About the Past", created two popular Internet hoaxes: the "Edward Owens hoax", and the "Reddit serial killer hoax". The goal of the course was the creation of a widespread Internet deception. As Kelly stated in the course's syllabus:

What's our goal? Buzz, of course! Viral! We want our hoax to be picked up and spread around the Internet like wildfire!

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catfishing</span> Deceptive online social network presence

Catfishing refers to the creation of a fictitious online persona, or fake identity, with the intent of deception, usually to mislead a victim into an online romantic relationship or to commit financial fraud. Perpetrators, usually referred to as catfish, generally use fake photos and lie about their personal lives to present themselves as more attractive for financial gain, personal satisfaction, evasion of legal consequences, or to troll. Public awareness surrounding catfishing has increased in recent years, partially attributed an increase in the occurrence of the practice combined with a number of high-profile instances.

Tommaso Debenedetti is an Italian writer and a schoolteacher in Rome who is known for writing fake news. He is a father of two children.

Misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines consists of disinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic propagated by various sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan MacMasters hoax</span> Hoax about the inventor of the toaster

In February 2012, a group of British students edited the Wikipedia article about electric toasters and inserted the false claim that a man named Alan MacMasters invented the toaster in 1893. One of the friends created a separate article about the fictitious Alan MacMasters in February 2013 and embellished it further in the following years. The fake article was cited by newspapers and other organizations until the hoax was exposed in July 2022.

References

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  5. Victor, Daniel (September 30, 2022). "For Once, the Hurricane Shark Was Real" . The New York Times . Archived from the original on September 30, 2022. Retrieved September 30, 2022.
  6. Mehta, Ankita (2014-08-28). "'Two Moons' Hoax: Absence of Twin Moon on 27 August Disappoints Many". International Business Times. Retrieved 2014-08-31.
  7. Heyd, Theresa (2008). Email Hoaxes: Form, Function, Genre Ecology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 4. ISBN   978-90-272-5418-4 . Retrieved October 30, 2010.
  8. Stein, Gordon (1993). Encyclopedia of hoaxes. Internet Archive. Detroit : Gale Research. p. 279. ISBN   978-0-8103-8414-9.
  9. Case, Richard A. (July 2, 1976). "Rubbing uncovers truth". Syracuse Herald-Journal.
  10. Brown, Dan (2003). The Da Vinci Code. Doubleday. ISBN   0-385-50420-9.
  11. Cohn, Norman (1966). Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World-Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elder of Zion . New York: Harper & Row..
  12. Sarah Dai (2018-08-17). "Redcore CEO admits '100pc China-developed browser' is built on Google's Chrome, says writing code from scratch would 'take many years'". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 2018-08-17. Retrieved 2018-08-17.
  13. "Maccas in damage control over Seriously McDonald's picture hoax". News.com.au. 14 June 2011. Retrieved 18 June 2011.
  14. "Ipswich, we have a problem: Space Cadets, the reality show that never left the ground". the Guardian. 2021-03-17. Retrieved 2023-01-03.
  15. Rogers, A. Glenn (1953). "The Taughannock Giant". No. Fall 2003. Life in the Finger Lakes. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  16. Githler, Charley (26 December 2017). "A Look Back At: Home-Grown Hoax: The Taughannock Giant". Tompkins Weekly. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  17. "Saturn and Lord Shaneeshwara – Part One | Mysteries Explored". Archived from the original on 2015-12-23. Retrieved 2015-12-23.

Further reading