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.
The Atlanta Nights hoax novel. The practice of growing bonsai kittens in jars. The British television series Brass Eye, which encouraged celebrities to pledge their support to nonexistent causes to highlight their willingness to do anything for publicity. Dihydrogen monoxide, a facetious technical term for water. Disumbrationism, a hoax art exhibit. Genpets, a hoax mixed-media art installation of 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. The house hippo hoax briefly perpetrated by Concerned Children's Advertisers in public service announcements designed to encourage children to view items in the media with a critical eye. The ID Sniper rifle, a rifle that shoots GPS-enabled microchips to mark and track suspects. The Morristown UFO hoax of 2009. The Pacific Northwest tree octopus (Octopus paxarbolis), an amphibious octopus. Project Alpha, which was orchestrated by James Randi and exposed poor research into psychic phenomena. The Quadrant hoax involving historian Keith Windschuttle. Joey Skaggs's media pranks, including Cathouse for Dogs (1976). SINA, the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals, the first media hoax of Alan Abel. The Sokal affair, which scrutinized an academic journal's intellectual rigor. The Straith hoax letter sent to George Adamski falsely stating that the US State Department endorsed his contactee claims; created by ufologists Gray Barker and James W. Moseley to bait Adamski into publicizing the forgery and thereby discrediting himself. Nat Tate, an imaginary artist about whom a biography was published in 1998 by William Boyd intended to temporarily fool the art world. The Taxil hoax by Léo Taxil, poking fun at the Roman Catholic Church's attitude toward Freemasonry. The avant-garde "music" of the fictitious Piotr Zak. Venus de Brizet, a statue discovered in a French farm field and declared a monument historique for presumed ancient Roman origins, before being revealed to have been buried as a publicity stunt by a living artist.
Journalistic hoaxes Deliberate hoaxes or journalistic scandals that have drawn widespread attention include: Jayson Blair, reporter for The New York Times. Cello scrotum, a hoax medical condition originally published as a brief case report in the British Medical Journal in 1974. Conspiracy 58, a Swedish mockumentary about the 1958 FIFA World Cup. Janet Cooke, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her fictitious Washington Post story about an eight-year-old heroin addict named Jimmy. Sidd Finch, a fictitious yogi and pitcher who threw a 168 mph ball, supposedly discovered by the Mets and profiled by George Plimpton in Sports Illustrated for April Fool's Day 1985. The Flemish Secession hoax of 2006. Fuckart & Pimp, a hoax 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. Stephen Glass, reporter for The New Republic. The Great Moon Hoax of 1835; Edgar Allan Poe would later claim that this was inspired by his own story "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall," which was published only a few months before. The Great Wall of China hoax of 1899, a fake news article describing bids by American businesses on a contract to demolish the Great Wall of China and construct a road in its place. The story was reprinted by a number of newspapers. Johann Hari, journalist for The Independent, The New York Times, The Huffington Post and other media organizations, who committed acts of plagiarism, fabricated sources and quotes, and posted malicious comments to social media and edits to the Wikipedia biographies of his critics and opponents. Hari was forced to return the Orwell Prize (which he won in 2008) after it was withdrawn by the Orwell Prize Council. The Holocaust teaching hoax of 2007. Washington Irving, who created a hoax about the supposedly missing Diedrich Knickerbocker. 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. David Manning, a fictitious film critic created by Sony in order to praise Columbia Pictures films for advertising purposes. Edgar Allan Poe created a hoax of moon travel in "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall," as well as The Balloon-Hoax, a hoax newspaper article about the first transatlantic balloon trip (1844). "A Rape on Campus", an article written by Sabrina Erdely and published by Rolling Stone magazine that reported an alleged gang rape 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. San Serriffe, a fictional island nation made the subject of an extensive report created for April Fools' Day 1977 by Britain's Guardian newspaper. Frank Scully's columns for Variety magazine and his 1950 book Behind the Flying Saucers, which said the US government had recovered crashed flying saucers and bodies of extraterrestrials. His sources were the con men behind the Aztec crashed saucer hoax, but he refused to admit he had been hoaxed despite national magazine exposés. The Sultan of Llang-Llang was the creation of Robert A. McLean, a Marine Corps recruiter working in Manhattan in 1919. His story, expected to be a one-day gag, became a national–and even international–sensation.
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 Cedric Allingham, a fictitious author who wrote a book about meeting the pilot of a Martian spacecraft. Allingham was created by British astronomer Patrick Moore and his friend Peter Davies. Alien Autopsy, a hoax film by Ray Santilli. Alternative 3, a 1977 British mockumentary about a global government conspiracy to evacuate world luminaries to Mars before an expected apocalypse. The film is a work of fiction meant to satirize conspiracy theories, but some conspiracy theorists believed it was part of an actual conspiracy. Amina Abdallah Arraf al Omari, a fictitious Syrian blogger. The Amityville Horror, ghostly events reported by the buyers of a house where another family had been murdered. The Archko Volume, a collection of documents purportedly related to the life of Jesus. Atlanta Nights, a deliberately bad collaborative novel written by a group of science fiction and fantasy authors under the pen name "Travis Tea" to expose PublishAmerica as a vanity press. The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, a book about the purported sexual enslavement of a nun. The Aztec crashed saucer hoax, a 1948 flying saucer crash in Aztec, New Mexico, concocted by two con men to sell equipment said to have been recovered from the site. Although the pair was convicted of fraud for this enterprise, reports of the crash—notably those written by Frank Scully—were later taken seriously by ufologists. The balloon boy hoax, about a boy reported to be traveling uncontrollably at high altitude in a homemade helium balloon, but was later discovered to be hiding in the attic of his house. Bananadine, a fictional drug supposedly made from bananas. The bathtub hoax, an imaginary history of the bathtub published by H. L. Mencken. Johann Beringer's Lying Stones, carvings of fictitious animal fossils. The Berners Street hoax that occurred in Westminster, England in 1810. 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 terminally ill woman donating her kidneys to one of three people requiring a transplantation. C. W. Blubberhouse, whose letters in UK national newspapers were exposed as a hoax by the Sunday Times. Blue waffle, a supposedly contagious sexually-transmitted infection affecting only women, causing a blue discoloration of the vagina. Pierre Brassau, 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. The Calaveras Skull, 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 Cardiff Giant, a hoax of a hoax; P. T. Barnum had a replica made because he could not obtain the "genuine" hoax item. Otis T. Carr's flying saucer, which he claimed would be capable of space travel using "free energy" principles developed by Nikola Tesla. The CERN ritual, a supposed occult sacrifice on the grounds of CERN. China Under the Empress Dowager, co-authored by Sir Edmund Backhouse, 2nd Baronet 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 Chinese Imperial Court in business deals and donated forged books to the Bodleian Library. The Cottingley Fairies, photographs of cut-out fairies believed to be real. 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.
D–F Dahu, a legendary creature known in France, Switzerland, and northern Italy. The disappearing blonde gene, a hoax claiming that natural blondes would become extinct. Document 12-571-3570, supposedly establishing that sex had taken place during a NASA space mission. The Donation of Constantine, a forged imperial decree by which the 4th-century emperor Constantine the Great supposedly transferred authority over Rome and the Western Roman Empire to the Pope. Drake's Plate of Brass, a forgery that purported to be the brass plaque that Francis Drake posted upon landing in Northern California in 1579. The Dreadnought hoax, perpetrated in 1910 by Horace de Vere Cole and a group of friends who, pretending to be an official delegation from Abyssinia, tricked the Royal Navy into giving them an official tour of the battleship . Drop bears, a supposed dangerous species of koala. The Elm Guest House hoax, false allegations that prominent British men had engaged in child sexual abuse at a London hotel. The Emulex hoax, a stock manipulation scheme. The English Mercurie, a literary hoax purporting to be the first English-language newspaper. The Fiji mermaid, the supposed remains of a half-fish half-human hybrid. The furry trout, a fictional legendary creature consisting of a trout with a thick coat of fur.
G–I Gay Jesus film hoax, a long-running chain letter claiming that a movie depicting Jesus as a gay swinger will soon be released Geostationary Banana Over Texas, an apparent hoax to secure artistic funding. Going Places, 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 Gorgeous Guy, an apparently motiveless hoax which gained the perpetrator some media attention.