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{{Short description|List of hoaxes throughout history}}
{{Refimprove|date=September 2008}}
{{for|a list of hoax articles on Misplaced Pages|Misplaced Pages:List of hoaxes on Misplaced Pages|selfref=yes}}
The following are '''lists of ]es''':
The following is a '''list of ]es:'''


==Proven hoaxes== ==Exposure hoaxes==
{{See also|Culture jamming}}
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 "]" article.
These types of hoaxes are semi-comical or private "]s" 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.


* The '']'' hoax novel.
===A–F===
* The practice of growing ]s in jars.
* ], fictitious author who wrote a book about meeting the pilot of a Martian spacecraft. Allingham was created by British astronomer ] and his friend Peter Davies.
* The British television series '']'', which encouraged celebrities to pledge their support to nonexistent causes to highlight their willingness to do anything for publicity.
* ] hoax film by ]
* ], a facetious technical term for ].
* ], a fake Syrian blogger
* ], a hoax art exhibit.
* ], a series of ] videos claiming to show evidence of intelligent, ] on the ]
*]s, a hoax mixed-media art installation of bio-engineered pet creatures.
* '']'', a collection of documents related to the life of Jesus
*], an alleged ] of the ] rock underground, concocted by a ] employee and profiled in ''].''
* ''The Awful Disclosures of ]'', a book about purported sexual-enslavement of a nun
* The ] hoax briefly perpetrated by ] in ] designed to encourage children to view items in the media with a critical eye.
* ], depicting a cross-Atlantic hot air balloon trip
* The ], a rifle that shoots GPS-enabled microchips to mark and track suspects.
* The ] – a boy reported to be traveling uncontrollably at high altitudes in a home-made ] was later discovered to be hiding in the attic of his house
* The ] of 2009.
* ], a fictional drug made from bananas
* The ] (''Octopus paxarbolis''), an ] ].
* ], an imaginary history of the bathtub published by ]
* ], which was orchestrated by ] and exposed poor research into ].
* ]
* The ] hoax involving historian ].
* ] in 1810
* ]'s media pranks, including Cathouse for Dogs (1976).
* ], a fictitious theologian originally invented to provide a footnote for a divinity school student, which later became an in-joke among academic theologians
* ], the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals, the first media hoax of ].
* '']'', a hoax reality television program in the Netherlands about a woman donating her ]s to one of three people requiring a transplantation
* The ], which scrutinized an academic journal's ].
* ], whose letters in UK national newspapers were exposed as a hoax by the '']''
* Nat Tate, an imaginary artist about whom ] was published in 1998 by ] intended to temporarily fool the art world.
* ], a supposedly contagious sexually transmitted disease affecting only women, causing a blue discoloration of the vagina
* The ] by ], poking fun at the ]'s attitude toward ].
* ] was a human skull found by miners in Calaveras County, California, which was purported to prove that humans, mastodons, and elephants had coexisted in California.
* The avant-garde "music" of the fictitious ].
* The ], was a hoax of a hoax, when ] made up a replica because he could not obtain the "genuine" hoax item
* ], the name of a statue that an artist buried with the intention to gain publicity with after its discovery and subsequent ] with falsely purported ancient Roman origins.
* The ]; cut-out fairies accepted as real
* ]s. English pranksters Doug Bower and Dave Chorley claimed they started the phenomenon, and hundreds of "copycat" circles have been fabricated since by other hoaxers.
* ]; not really
* ] supposedly established that sex had taken place during a U.S. space mission
* ], a stock manipulation scheme
* ], a literary hoax purporting to be the first English language newspaper
* ], a fictitious poet
* ], the supposed remains of a half-fish half-human hybrid
* ], fictional baseball player<ref>{{cite book |last=Plimpton |first=George |authorlink=George Plimpton |title=The Curious Case of Sidd Finch |year=2004 |publisher=] |location=] |isbn=1-56858-296-X}}</ref>
* ]


==Journalistic hoaxes==
===G–M===
Deliberate hoaxes or ] that have drawn widespread attention include:
* ] a series of articles describing a Lunar civilization
* ], reporter for '']''.
* ] a super hero movie that was promoted on the web despite the fact that it did not exist
* ], a hoax medical condition originally published as a brief case report in the '']'' in 1974.
* ], African-American slave exhibited by ] as ]'s nurse.
* '']'', a Swedish ] about the ].
* '']'', the 1829 book by Etienne Leon de Lamonthe-Langan
* ], who won the ] for her fictitious '']'' story about an eight-year-old heroin addict named Jimmy.
* The ], purpotedly written by ]
* ], a fictitious ] and ] who threw a 168&nbsp;mph ball, supposedly discovered by the ] and profiled by ] in '']'' for April Fool's Day 1985.<ref>{{cite book |last=Plimpton |first=George |title=The Curious Case of Sidd Finch |publisher=] |year=2004 |isbn=1-56858-296-X |location=] |author-link=George Plimpton}}</ref>
* The ], a ] hoax
* The ] of 2006.
* The ], a collection of ]-related documents supposedly discovered by ] and published in 1795 by his father, ]; the discoveries included a "lost" play, '']''
* ], a hoax exhibition at London's ] 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.
* ]'s ] of ]
* The ], supposedly a form of ] with ] * ], reporter for ''].''
* The ] of 1835; ] would later claim that this was inspired by his own story "]," which was published only a few months before.
* The ], a supposed gorilla or sasquatch caught near Yale, British Columbia, in 1884
* The ] of 1899, a fake news article describing bids by American businesses on a contract to demolish the ] and construct a road in its place. The story was reprinted by a number of newspapers.
* The ], a claim of ]'s deathbed conversion to evangelical Christianity
* ], journalist for '']'', '']'', '']'' and other media organizations, who committed acts of plagiarism, fabricated sources and quotes, and posted malicious comments to social media and edits to the Misplaced Pages biographies of his critics and opponents. Hari was forced to return the ] (which he won in 2008) after it was withdrawn by the Orwell Prize Council.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/bagehots-notebook/2011/09/15/the-depressing-tale-of-johann-hari|title=The depressing tale of Johann Hari|date=September 15, 2011|newspaper=The Economist}}</ref>
* ], a hoax that claimed a farmer grew an oversized potato
* The ] of 2007.
* ], advocating for the development of an airport replacing ].<ref name="hoax">{{cite news|url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1201334/Plans-revealed-bulldoze-Central-Park-make-way-airport-New-Yorks-Manhattan-Island.html|title=Airport Hoax|work=]|accessdate=2009-07-22 |location=London |first=Tim |last=Clark |date=July 22, 2009}}</ref>
* ], who created a hoax about the supposedly missing ].
* ] (also called the Two Moons hoax), a yearly hoax, started in 2003, falsely claiming that at a certain date ] will look as large as the full moon<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.ibtimes.co.in/two-moons-hoax-absence-twin-moon-27-august-disappoints-many-607879 |first=Ankita |last=Mehta |title='Two Moons' Hoax: Absence of Twin Moon on 27 August Disappoints Many |date=2014-08-28 |accessdate=2014-08-31 |publisher=''International Business Times''}}</ref>
* ], longtime '']'' correspondent.
* '']'', an album issued by a ] subsidiary that reportedly featured a jam session between ], ], ] and ]. The perpetrator was '']'' magazine.
* ], who wrote the 2007 "]" article, which chronicled ]'s rejection by modern-day publishers.
* The ], a 1994 hoax claiming that ] had acquired the ]. The hoax is considered to be the first hoax to reach a mass audience on the Internet. Following its debunking by Microsoft, new jokes with similar stories about Microsoft and other companies unrealistically acquiring affluent non-profit bodies have also appeared later.
* ] of 1874.
* ]'s '']'' magazine article, "]", which was the source material for the movie '']'', and which Cohn admitted decades later had been fiction, not reportage.
* ], a fictitious ] created by ] in order to praise ] films for advertising purposes.
* Edgar Allan Poe created a hoax of moon travel in "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall," as well as ], a hoax newspaper article about the first transatlantic balloon trip (1844).
* "]", an article written by ] and published by '']'' magazine that reported an alleged ] of a female college student by college men in graphic detail, but was later found to have been entirely fabricated by the "victim" and the journalist.
* ], a fictional island nation made the subject of an extensive report created for April Fools' Day 1977 by Britain's '']'' newspaper.


===N–S=== ==Other hoaxes==
This list does not include hoax articles published on or around ], a long list of which can be found in the ] article.
* '']'': a 1969 novel by a group of American journalists attempting to satisfy, and thus expose, what they perceived as degraded standards in popular American literature; it succeeded, selling about 90,000 copies before the hoax was revealed.
* '']'', a "fish" supposedly discovered in 1872 in Australia, made of a mullet, an eel and the head of a platypus, as a joke on ] which also fooled ] into writing a scientific description of the "species".
* ''],'' "translated" by ]
* "]", an early popularized Internet hoax.
* ], perpetrated on the English-language Misplaced Pages in 2008 by a class at George Mason University.
* The ] (''Octopus paxarbolis'')
* ] (] death hoax)
* The ] engines built by ] and ]
* The ], a mummy of an alleged princess which surfaced in October 2000, which proved to be an archaeological forgery and possibly a modern murder victim.
* ]
* ] was a pseudonym for a chimpanzee whose art was exhibited in a gallery under the presumption that Brassau was a real human artist. The chimpanzee received positive reviews from several critics.
* ]
* ], a fictional school whose football scores ended up in major newspapers in 1941.
* ], deliberate hoax by ] and ] about a fictitious band from 1974 promoted using ]
* ] – the one and only supposed female ]
*], a made-up band that earned a number 24 hit for "]", a song they had not recorded
* ], aka Mary Baker
* The ], a made-up secret society that plays a prominent role in '']''<ref name="DVC">{{cite book |first=Dan |last=Brown |title=The Da Vinci Code |publisher=Doubleday |year=2003 |isbn=0-385-50420-9}}</ref>
* ], a date-rape drug
* '']'', a book instrumental in the surge of ] during the last hundred years<ref name=Cohn1966>{{cite book |first=Norman |last=Cohn |title=Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World-Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elder of Zion |place=New York |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1966}}.</ref>
* ] and his "]"
* ]
* ], an Internet hoax based on the 9/11 attacks
* '']''
* Tamara Rand prediction of the 1981 assassination attempt on ], which was actually made after the fact {{harvcol|Randi|1982|p=329}}.
* '']'' chronicles the rejection by publishing houses of the opening chapters of ] novels submitted to them under a pseudonym by British writer ]
* '']'', a literary hoax claiming that the government had concluded that peacetime was not in the economy's best interest
* ]: the admission of healthy "pseudopatients" to twelve psychiatric hospitals.
* ], who cheated in the ]
* ]'s 1950 book ''Behind the Flying Saucers'', which claimed that aliens from a crashed flying saucer were being held
* "]", a viral photograph apparently showing racist policies introduced by ].<ref>{{cite news |title=McDonald's issues Twitter denial after hoax poster saying blacks will be charged extra goes viral|url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2002998/McDonalds-Twitter-denial-blacks-charged-extra-hoax-poster-goes-viral.html|newspaper=]|date=13 June 2011|accessdate=18 June 2011}}</ref>
* ], who perpetrated a hoax that Germany was planning a nuclear attack on the 2012 Summer Olympics
* The ], a form of winged hare supposedly indigenous to Sweden
* The 'Sloot Digital Coding System' (SDCS), a methode of digital compression devised by Dutchman ] which allegedly could compress an entire movie into 8 kilobyte
* '']'', supposed ancient Greek poems "discovered" by ]
* '']'', a 2005 TV programme by ], in which contestants were fooled into thinking that they were training at a Russian space academy to become space tourists.
* The ] letter sent to ] by Gray Barker and ] {{harvcol|Moseley|Pflock|2002|pp=124–27,331–32}}.
* ]'s ] {{harvcol|Boese|2002|pp=127–8}}
* The "]" of the ]
* SETI: EQ Pegasus Hoax of 1998<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/206845.stm |title=Alien hoax dismays scientists |publisher=BBC News |date=1998-11-03 |accessdate=2012-05-23}}</ref>


===T–Z=== ===A–C===
* ], a fictitious author who wrote a book about meeting the pilot of a ] spacecraft. Allingham was created by British astronomer ] and his friend Peter Davies.
* ]
* ], a hoax film by ].
* ] Tapes, a fake conversation with which the punk band ] fooled the governments of the USA and UK
* '']'', a collection of documents purportedly related to the life of ].
* Slowing of Satellites above ], because of mysterious UV rays from ], claimed to have been admitted as a Miracle, by ]<ref>https://mysteriesexplored.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/saturn-and-lord-shaneeshwara-part-one/</ref>
* ], a fictitious Syrian blogger.
* ]'s "prayer cloths"
* '']'', ghostly events reported by the buyers of a house where another family had been murdered.
* ], the rabbit mother
* '']'', a deliberately bad ] written by a group of ] and ] authors under the ] "Travis Tea" to expose ] as a ].
* ], an invented fad about people using ] phones to arrange sexual encounters
* ''The Awful Disclosures of ]'', a book about the purported sexual enslavement of a nun.
* ], fake photo of a tourist at the top of the ] building on 9/11 with a plane about to crash in the background
* The ], about a boy reported to be traveling uncontrollably at high altitude in a homemade ], but was later discovered to be hiding in the attic of his house.
* ], a fictitious ] race meeting
* ], a fictional drug supposedly made from ].
* ], a ]-playing ] that actually contained a person
* The ], an imaginary history of the bathtub published by ].
* ], a computer virus hoax
* ], carvings of fictitious animal ].
* Benjamin Vanderford's ]
* The ] that occurred in ], ] in 1810.
* ], a pamphlet distributed in Europe with claims of various ]s having carcinogenic effects.
* ], a fictitious ] originally invented to provide a footnote for a divinity school student, which later became an in-joke among academic theologians.
* ], hoax message inserted into an IBA broadcast in the United Kingdom on 26 November 1977
* '']'', a hoax ] program in the ] about a ] woman donating her ]s to one of three people requiring a transplantation.
* ], a fictitious person that was used by the ''Jerusalem Post'' as a source
* ], whose letters in UK national newspapers were exposed as a hoax by the ''].''
* ]'s claims to be a survivor of ] (as ]), and of the ] (as ])
* ], a supposedly contagious ] affecting only women, causing a blue discoloration of the vagina.
* ], the false documents suggesting Iraq's Saddam Hussein was to purchase uranium from Niger
* ], a pseudonym for a ] whose art was exhibited in a gallery under the presumption that Brassau was a real human artist. The chimpanzee received positive reviews from several critics.
* ], a fictitious word that fooled ] for 70 years
* The ], a human skull found by miners in ], ], which was purported to prove that ]s, ]s, and ]s had coexisted in California.
* The ], a hoax of a hoax; ] had a replica made because he could not obtain the "genuine" hoax item.
* The ], a supposed occult sacrifice on the grounds of ].
* ''China Under the Empress Dowager'', co-authored by ] using a forged diary as a major source, with a manuscript of Backhouse's memoirs also being mostly fiction. He also falsely represented himself as representing the ] in business deals and donated forged books to the ].
* The ], photographs of cut-out ] believed to be real.
* ]; English pranksters Doug Bower and Dave Chorley claimed they started the phenomenon, and hundreds of "copycat" circles have been fabricated since by other hoaxers.


==Proven hoaxes of exposure== === D–F ===
* ], a legendary creature known in ], ], and northern ].
"Proven hoaxes of exposure" are semi-comical or private ]s. They usually encourage people to act foolishly or credulously by falling for patent nonsense that the hoaxer deliberately presents as reality. See also '']''.
* The ], a hoax claiming that natural blondes would become extinct.
* ], supposedly establishing that ] during a ] space mission.
* The ], a forged imperial decree by which the 4th-century emperor ] supposedly transferred authority over ] and the ] to the ].
* ], a ] that purported to be the brass plaque that ] posted upon landing in ] in 1579.
* The ], perpetrated in 1910 by ] and a group of friends who, pretending to be an official delegation from ], tricked the ] into giving them an official tour of the battleship {{HMS|Dreadnought|1906|6}}.
* ], a supposed dangerous species of ].
* The ], false allegations that prominent British men had engaged in child sexual abuse at a London hotel.
* The ], a ] scheme.
* ], a literary hoax purporting to be the first English-language newspaper.
* The ], the supposed remains of a half-fish half-human hybrid.
* The ], a fictional legendary creature consisting of a ] with a thick coat of fur.


===G–I===
* '']'' – ghostly events reported by the buyers of a house where another family had been murdered.
* ], a long-running ] claiming that a movie depicting ] as a gay ] will soon be released
* The '']'' hoax
* ], an apparent hoax to secure artistic funding.
* The British television series '']'' encouraged celebrities to pledge their support to nonexistent causes, to highlight their willingness to do anything for publicity
* ], a public media debate on the nature of art provoked by University of Leeds art students pretending to take a week-long vacation in Spain, then presenting the vacation as their end-of-year project.
* ]
* The ], an apparently motiveless hoax which gained the perpetrator some media attention.
* ]
* The ], a supposed group of ]s discovered in the 1970s in ], New South Wales, Australia.
*]s, the bio-engineered pet creatures
* ], a Brazilian woman who pretended to be pregnant with quadruplets in 2012 and gained national media attention before her pregnancy was revealed to be bogus.
*], an alleged ] of the ] rock underground, concocted by a ] employee and profiled in '']''
* ], a ] ] claimed to be developed completely by ] himself, later found to be a ] microchip with its original trademark sanded away.
* ], a rifle that shoots GPS chips to mark and track suspects
* Tania Head (]), who claimed to be a ] survivor and received widespread media attention.
* The ] bio-engineered sex toy
* ], an African-American slave exhibited by ] as ]'s nurse.
* ] – exposed poor research into ]
* '']'', a forged 1829 book by Étienne-Léon de Lamothe-Langon.
* ], by Lyle Zapato
*], a German woman who claimed to be the Jewish descendant of Holocaust survivors.<ref name="derspiegel1">{{cite web |last=Doerry |first=Martin |date=6 June 2019 |title=The Historian Who Invented 22 Holocaust Victims |url=https://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/the-historian-who-invented-22-holocaust-victims-a-1270963.html |access-date=27 November 2021 |work=Der Spiegel}}</ref>
* ], the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals
* The ], purportedly written by ].
* ], an imaginary artist, about whom a biography was published in 1998 by ] intended to temporarily fool the art world
* "]", a hoax episode of the British TV comedy '']'' which was advertised to be broadcast, but was never actually made.
* Media pranks of ]
* The ], a ] hoax.
* The ]
* '']'', a fictional competition to ] semi-naked women with ] in the deserts of ].<ref>{{snopes|link=http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/bambi.asp|title=Hunting For Bambi}}</ref>
* The ] by ], poking fun at the ]'s attitude toward ]
* ] or Street Shark, a recurring hoax appearing to show a shark swimming in a flooded urban area, usually after a ]. A 2022 video of such a shark or large fish, however, proved to be real.<ref name="nyt-real">{{Cite news |last=Victor |first=Daniel |date=September 30, 2022 |title=For Once, the Hurricane Shark Was Real |work=] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/30/us/hurricane-shark-ian-hoax.html |url-status=live |url-access=limited |access-date=September 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220930162041/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/30/us/hurricane-shark-ian-hoax.html |archive-date=September 30, 2022}}</ref>
* The avant-garde "music" of "]"
* '']'', a hoax perpetrated by ] to manipulate ], which was later developed into a real book.
* The practice of growing ]s
*The ], claiming that ] an iPhone would charge it.
* January 2009 ] ]
* The ], a collection of ]-related documents supposedly discovered by ] and published in 1795 by his father, ]; the discoveries included a "lost" play, ''].''
* The Canadian ] hoax briefly perpetrated by ] in public service announcements designed to encourage children to view items in the media with a critical eye.
* ]'s ] of ].


==Journalistic hoaxes== === J–M ===
* The ], a legendary animal described as a ] with ].
Deliberate hoaxes, or ], that drew widespread attention include:
* The ], a supposed ] or ] caught near ], ], in 1884.
* The ] plane crash, which Jacob deliberately staged in 2021 for ] views, claiming it was an accident caused by engine failure.
* ], the purported Russian inventor of the ].
* The ], a claim of ]'s deathbed conversion to evangelical Christianity.
* ], a television hoax by Soviet musician Sergey Kuryokhin and reporter Sergey Sholokhov. It was first broadcast on 17 May 1991 on Leningrad Television.
* The ], hatched by two amateur actors pretending to be recently fired ] employees.
* ], a supposed legend from the ] about a girl who disappeared in 1831; she was later admitted to have been made up in the 1960s by the vicar of ].
* ], a non-existent airport indicated by a real roadside sign in ] since 2002.
* ], a fictitious poet.
* The ] (also called the Two Moons hoax), a yearly hoax started in 2003 that falsely claims that at a certain date, ] will appear as large as a ].<ref>{{cite web |last=Mehta |first=Ankita |date=2014-08-28 |title='Two Moons' Hoax: Absence of Twin Moon on 27 August Disappoints Many |url=http://www.ibtimes.co.in/two-moons-hoax-absence-twin-moon-27-august-disappoints-many-607879 |access-date=2014-08-31 |website=International Business Times}}</ref>
* '']'', a non-existent album "reviewed" as a prank by '']'' magazine. The album was alleged to feature a jam session between ], ], ], and ]. Shortly thereafter, ''Rolling Stone'' hired several celebrity impersonators and session musicians to record the album.
* ] have perpetrated a number of hoaxes, including the fake ] web site "vaticano.org" and the fictitious artist Darko Maver.
* The ], in which a pastor claimed to have terminal cancer.
* The ], a 1994 hoax claiming that ] had acquired the ]. The hoax is considered to be the first hoax to reach a mass audience on the Internet.<ref>{{cite book |last=Heyd |first=Theresa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jUTkPqhvd-wC |title=Email Hoaxes: Form, Function, Genre Ecology |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |year=2008 |isbn=978-90-272-5418-4 |location=Amsterdam |page=4 |access-date=October 30, 2010}}</ref> Despite debunking by Microsoft, similar stories about Microsoft and other companies implementing unrealistic acquisitions continued.
* The ], an attempt by a diver to pass modern emeralds off as treasures from a sunken Spanish ].
*The missing day hoax, a piece of ] ] propaganda claiming that the planets in the Solar System were found to be halted from orbiting the Sun for 24 hours in the ancient past, supposedly reflecting the time when God extended a day for ].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stein |first=Gordon |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofho0000stei |title=Encyclopedia of hoaxes |date=1993 |publisher=Detroit : Gale Research |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-8103-8414-9 |pages=279}}</ref>
*The ], a fake social media challenge supposedly encouraging children to ] and ].
* The ], an 18th-century hoax about a dragon-like monster supposedly found in ].
* The ] sexual assault hoax, perpetrated by far-right conspiracy theorists ] and ].
* The ], a hoax that claimed that a farmer grew an oversized potato.


===N–P===
* ] created a hoax about the supposedly missing Diedrich Knickerbocker
* '']'': a 1969 novel by a group of American journalists attempting to satisfy, and thus expose, what they perceived as degraded standards in popular ]; it succeeded, selling about 90,000 copies before the hoax was revealed.
* ] created a hoax of moon travel in "]"
* ]: a ] and doomsday theory involving a planet collision with ]. Debunked by ] and others as a hoax.
* ], reporter for '']''
* The ], false documents suggesting ] was to purchase ] from Niger.
* ], who won the ] for her fictitious '']'' story about an eight-year-old ] addict named Jimmy
* '']'', a hoax perpetrated in ] between 1971 and 1972 that involved supposed sightings of a half-naked woman living amongst ]s on the ].
* '']'' – this French mockumentary "proving" that the Apollo moon landings were hoaxes is itself an admitted hoax
* '']'', a "fish" supposedly discovered in 1872 in Australia as a practical joke on ], which also fooled ] into writing a scientific description of the "species". It was made of a mullet, an eel, and the head of a platypus.
* The ] of 2006
* ''],'' "translated" by ].
* ], reporter for '']''
* '']'', an early popularized Internet hoax involving two purported 18-year-olds who claimed they would live broadcast themselves losing their ].
* ] a hoax art exhibition at London's ], 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.
* '']'', a fake document alleging Jewish superiority over ]s by a non-existent ] named Emmanuel Rabinovich.
* The ] of 1835; ] would later claim that this was inspired by his own story "]," which was published only a few months before
* ], a fictitious fisherman turned ] whose story was perpetrated on the English-language Misplaced Pages in 2008 by a class at ].
* ] of 1899
* ], a hoax about a flight that disappeared and landed thirty years later.
* ], journalist for ], ], ] and other media organisations, who committed acts of plagiarism, fabricated sources and quotes, and posted malicious comments to social media and edits to the Misplaced Pages biographies of his critics and opponents. Hari was forced to return the ] (which he won in 2008) after it was withdrawn by the Orwell Prize Council.<ref>https://www.economist.com/blogs/bagehot/2011/09/unethical-journalism</ref>
* ], which claims that ] died in 1966 and was secretly replaced.
* ], longtime '']'' correspondent
* '']'', a fictional ]ian soap opera.
* ] who wrote the 2007 ']' article, which chronicled ]'s rejection by modern-day publishers
* The ] engines built by ] and ].
* ] of 1874
* The ], a mummy of an alleged princess which surfaced in October 2000. It proved to be an archaeological forgery and possibly a modern murder victim.
* ]'s '']'' magazine article, "]", which was the source material for the movie '']'', and which Cohn admitted decades later had been fiction, not reportage
* The ], whose remains were purported to be "the ]" between apes and humans.
* ] about the soccer world cup of 1958
* ], a fictional school whose football scores ended up in major newspapers in 1941.
* ], a fictitious film-critic created by ] in order to place good quotes on ]' film advertising
* ], a deliberate hoax by ] and ] about a fictitious band from 1974 promoted using ].
* ]
* The ], a stone carved as a hoax in the 1820s and dated to 1520, revealed 1894.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Case |first=Richard A. |date=July 2, 1976 |title=Rubbing uncovers truth |work=Syracuse Herald-Journal |url=https://www.newspaperarchive.com/entertainment-clipping-jul-02-1976-2669195/}}</ref>
* ] is a hoax medical condition originally published as a brief case report in the British Medical Journal in 1974.
* ], a Dutch official of the ] who supposedly recovered 2 Chinese chronicles from ], ] and ], ].
* ], a fictional island nation made the subject of an extensive report created for April Fools' Day 1977 by Britain's '']'' newspaper
*], a made-up band that earned a number 24 hit for "]", a song they had not recorded.
* ], also known as Mary Baker, a woman in England who alleged to be a princess from a far-off land.
* The ], a made-up secret society that plays a prominent role in ''].''<ref name="DVC">{{cite book |last=Brown |first=Dan |url=https://archive.org/details/davincicodenove00brow |title=The Da Vinci Code |publisher=Doubleday |year=2003 |isbn=0-385-50420-9}}</ref>
* ], a fictitious date-rape drug.
* ], a Latin document predicting the next Popes.
* '']'', a book instrumental in the surge of ] during the twentieth century.<ref name="Cohn1966">{{cite book |last=Cohn |first=Norman |url=https://archive.org/details/warrantforgenoci00cohnrich |title=Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World-Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elder of Zion |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1966 |place=New York |url-access=registration}}.</ref>
* ], who claimed to come from "]".
* ], a pseudoscientific medical practice where the practitioner pretends to perform surgery on the patient.


==See also== === Q–S ===
* ], an Internet hoax based on the 9/11 attacks.
* The ], wherein game shows were presented as legitimate contests despite being fixed or completely scripted.
* '']'', an antisemitic fake document.
* Tamara Rand's prediction of the 1981 assassination attempt on ], which was actually made after the fact {{harvcol|Randi|1982|p=329}}.
* ], a Chinese browser purported to be developed in-house, but was revealed to be based on ].<ref name="scmp">{{cite web |author=Sarah Dai |date=2018-08-17 |title=Redcore CEO admits '100pc China-developed browser' is built on Google's Chrome, says writing code from scratch would 'take many years' |url=https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/2160072/redcore-ceo-admits-100pc-china-developed-browser-built-googles-chrome-says |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180817065421/https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/2160072/redcore-ceo-admits-100pc-china-developed-browser-built-googles-chrome-says |archive-date=2018-08-17 |access-date=2018-08-17 |website=South China Morning Post |language=en}}</ref>
* "]", an article that chronicles publishing houses' rejection of the opening chapters of ] novels submitted to them under a pseudonym by British writer ].
* '']'', a literary hoax claiming that the United States government had concluded that peace was not in the economy's best interest.
* The ], involving the admission of healthy "pseudopatients" to twelve psychiatric hospitals.
* ], who cheated in the 1980 ].
* ], a fictional spirit devised by a local headmaster to shame the vicar into tidying up the churchyard.
* ]'s 1950 book ''Behind the Flying Saucers'', which claimed that aliens from a crashed flying saucer were being held.
* "]", a viral photograph apparently showing a racist policy introduced by ].<ref>{{cite news |date=14 June 2011 |title=Maccas in damage control over Seriously McDonald's picture hoax |publisher=] |url=http://www.news.com.au/technology/maccas-in-damage-control-over-seriously-mcdonalds-picture-hoax/story-e6frfro0-1226074651664 |access-date=18 June 2011}}</ref>
* ], who perpetrated a hoax that German intelligence was planning a nuclear attack on the ].
* The ], a form of winged hare supposedly indigenous to Sweden.
* The ], a method of ] claimed by inventor Jan Sloot to be capable of compressing digital video into far less memory than is mathematically possible using known technology.
* The ], a supposed ], ] attack on the '']'' actor in Chicago.
* '']'', supposed ancient Greek poems "discovered" by ].
* The ], a hoax message inserted into an ] broadcast in the United Kingdom on 26 November 1977.
* '']'', a 2005 TV programme by ] in which participants were deceived into believing they were on a five-day trip in ].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-03-17 |title=Ipswich, we have a problem: Space Cadets, the reality show that never left the ground |url=http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/mar/17/ipswich-we-have-a-problem-space-cadets-the-reality-show-that-never-left-the-ground |access-date=2023-01-03 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref>
* '']'', a 1916 publication heralding a hoax poetry movement.
* The ], an online, ] ] hoax from ] that claimed that ] immigrants were eating pets, specifically cats and dogs.
* ], a 1986 radio advertising hoax in ] to promote the effectiveness of radio advertising by advertising a fictional automobile.
* The ] letter sent to ] by Gray Barker and ] {{harvcol|Moseley|Pflock|2002|pp=124–27,331–32}}.
* ]'s "]" advertising {{harvcol|Boese|2002|pp=127–8}}.
* The "]" of the ].
* The ], which stated that ] had officially declared sex a sport and was hosting Europe's first-ever sex competition.


===T–Z===
*] (alleged location of hidden treasure)
* The ], a petrified giant "discovered" in ], in 1879. This copycat hoax was inspired by the ] ten years earlier.<ref name="Rogers">{{cite news |last1=Rogers |first1=A. Glenn |date=1953 |title=The Taughannock Giant |publisher=Life in the Finger Lakes |issue=Fall 2003 |url=https://www.lifeinthefingerlakes.com/the-taughannock-giant/ |access-date=28 June 2019}}</ref><ref name="Githler">{{cite news |last1=Githler |first1=Charley |date=26 December 2017 |title=A Look Back At: Home-Grown Hoax: The Taughannock Giant |publisher=Tompkins Weekly |url=http://tompkinsweekly.com/stories/a-look-back-at-home-grown-hoax-the-taughannock-giant,487 |access-date=28 June 2019}}</ref>
*] (alleged location of hidden treasure)
* The ], in which the football player was ].
*] (alleged location of hidden treasure)
* ], a fake conversation with which the punk band ] fooled the governments of the US and UK.
*] (people it was claimed really existed – unlike ]s).
* The slowing of satellites above ] due to mysterious UV rays from ], claimed to be "a miracle" by NASA.<ref>{{cite web |title=Saturn and Lord Shaneeshwara – Part One &#124; Mysteries Explored |url=https://mysteriesexplored.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/saturn-and-lord-shaneeshwara-part-one/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151223165416/https://mysteriesexplored.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/saturn-and-lord-shaneeshwara-part-one/ |archive-date=2015-12-23 |access-date=2015-12-23}}</ref>
* ], an English woman who convinced doctors that she gave birth to rabbits.
* ], an invented fad about people using ]-enabled mobile devices to arrange sexual encounters.
* The ], a fake photo of a tourist at the top of the ] building on 9/11 with a plane about to crash in the background.
* ], a fictitious ] race meeting.
* ], a fictional Japanese ice hockey player selected by the ] in the ]. The Sabres' general manager, ], made the selection as a protest against the NHL's draft procedures.
* ], a ]-playing "]" that actually contained a person.
* ], a computer virus hoax.
* Benjamin Vanderford's fake ].
* The ], a pamphlet distributed in Europe with claims of various ]s having carcinogenic effects.
* ], a fictitious person that was used by the '']'' as a source and was later revealed to be a ] man.
* ]'s claims to be a survivor of ] (as Lauren Stratford), and of the ] (as Laura Grabowski).
* The ], a Bavarian cousin of the jackalope.
* The ], in which a virtual debate competition was supposedly dominated by a ] student.
* '']'', a non-existent movie created to promote a TikToker's, Emily Jeffri, new album.
* ], a fictitious word that fooled ] for 70 years.

===0–9===
* The ], a hoax TV report aired on Georgian television.

==See also==
*], 19th century texts alleged to state the location of hidden treasure, but thought to be hoaxes by some researchers
*] *]
*], a type of ] where a newcomer to a group, typically in a workplace context, is given an impossible or nonsensical task by older or more experienced members of the group.
*]
*] *]
*], people it was claimed really existed, unlike fictional characters
*]
*] *]
*] *]
*]
*], alleged location of hidden treasure
*]
*], alleged location of hidden treasure
*], a common hoax of exposure consisting of a fictitious street deliberately included on a copyrighted map to expose plagiarists


==References== ==References==
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| issue = 6 | issue = 6
| pages = 39–43 | pages = 39–43
| doi =
| id =
| url =
| format =
| accessdate =
}} }}
*{{citation *{{citation
| last = Hines|first=Terence| authorlink = Terence Hines | last = Hines
| first = Terence
| author-link = Terence Hines
| title = Pseudoscience and the Paranormal: A Critical Examination of the Evidence | title = Pseudoscience and the Paranormal: A Critical Examination of the Evidence
| publisher = Prometheus Books | publisher = Prometheus Books
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| isbn = 0-87975-419-2 | isbn = 0-87975-419-2
| oclc = 17462273 | oclc = 17462273
| url = https://archive.org/details/pseudosciencepar00hine
}} }}
* {{citation * {{citation
|last=Moseley |first=James W. |authorlink = James W. Moseley |last1=Moseley |first1=James W. |author-link = James W. Moseley
|last2=Pflock|first2 = Karl T. |last2=Pflock|first2 = Karl T.
|year= 2002 |year= 2002
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* ] (1994). ''Watch the Skies: A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth'', ], {{ISBN|1-56098-343-4}}. * ] (1994). ''Watch the Skies: A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth'', ], {{ISBN|1-56098-343-4}}.
* {{citation * {{citation
| last = Randi | first = James| authorlink = James Randi | last = Randi | first = James| author-link = James Randi
| year = 1982 | year = 1982
| title = Flim-Flam! | title = Flim-Flam!
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* *


] {{DEFAULTSORT:Hoaxes (list)}}
]
] ]
]
]

Latest revision as of 22:44, 13 January 2025

List of hoaxes throughout history For a list of hoax articles on Misplaced Pages, see Misplaced Pages:List of hoaxes on Misplaced Pages.

The following is a list of hoaxes:

Exposure hoaxes

See also: Culture jamming

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.

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

References

  1. Plimpton, George (2004). The Curious Case of Sidd Finch. New York, NY: Four Walls Eight Windows. ISBN 1-56858-296-X.
  2. "The depressing tale of Johann Hari". The Economist. September 15, 2011.
  3. Doerry, Martin (6 June 2019). "The Historian Who Invented 22 Holocaust Victims". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  4. Mikkelson, Barbara & David P. "Hunting For Bambi" at Snopes.com: Urban Legends Reference Pages.
  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

External links

Categories: