There’s a reason journalists will usually not accept Wikipedia as a reliable source—because the site can be edited by anyone, misinformation and hoaxes are lurking around every corner. While most of these are quickly caught by Wikipedia’s team of moderators, many have gone unnoticed for years. Here are some of the most disruptive cases—that have been discovered, that is. Feel free to mention any others you may know in the comments.

SEE ALSO: 10 Viral Photos That Were Proven To Be Hoaxes

10Sinbad’s Death

Famed stand-up comedian Sinbad is very much alive—but back in March 2007, some prankster decided to edit Sinbad’s Wikipedia page to claim he had died of a heart attack. Sinbad first learned of the inaccurate information in a telephone call he got from his daughter, and he expected it not to be that big of a deal—but over the next couple of days, hundreds of concerned people contacted him about his presumed death. He said the incident wasn’t “that strange”, though, and, given the large smattering of celebrities who have also been the victims of premature obituaries thanks to Wikipedia vandalism (everyone from Ted Kennedy to Miley Cyrus), he just might be right.^[1]

9 Wrightbus

Here’s a case in which a “prank” addition to a Wikipedia article created widespread panic because of a tense environment. In November 2015, a vandal added an erroneous statement to the Wikipedia article for Wrightbus (a bus manufacturer based in Ballymena, Northern Ireland) that claimed FirstGroup, a Scotland-based transport company, had purchased Wrightbus. The false information was quickly spread by word-of-mouth, panicking the company’s more than 1500 employees. It gets worse, though, because two significant businesses (a tire manufacturer and a tobacco company) had recently announced plans to leave Ballymena, costing more than 1700 jobs between them. The hoax was a match in the powder barrel for local workers who were already concerned about job loss. While the hoax was quickly discredited by a local newspaper, that only stopped the bleeding—it couldn’t heal the wound.^[2]

8Jar’Edo Wens

This case shows just how easy it is to compose a faux article that slips through the cracks and stays on Wikipedia for years. That’s what happened to an article created in May 2005 for a fake deity known only as Jar’Edo Wens (most likely a clever reworking of the name Jared Owens). The creator of the article made just three Wikipedia edits: besides creating the page, he also added Jar’Edo and another made-up deity, Yohrmum (an obvious pun) to a list of Australian aboriginal deities. The entire process took just eleven minutes to complete, but the Jar’Edo Wens page—despite being flagged in 2009 for lacking sources—stayed on the website for nearly ten years. During that time, Jar’Edo even found his way into a book criticizing theism, being mentioned as a god who had “fallen out of favor.” When the hoax was finally outed in March 2015, it was officially recognized as the longest-running hoax on Wikipedia. Though it’s since been surpassed in that respect, the “Jar’Edo Wens” debacle was definitely a key moment in the history of Wikipedia hoaxes.^[3]

7 Maurice Jarre

Our next entry proved that Wikipedia isn’t always the problem. Back in March 2009, Academy-Award-winning composer Maurice Jarre died. Quotes that appeared in several obituaries for him (including one published by “The Guardian”, a leading British newspaper) included “life itself has been one long soundtrack,” and “when I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head that only I can hear.” The problem? Jarre never actually said any of that. You see, when University of Dublin student Shane Fitzgerald heard of Jarre’s death, he thought it an excellent opportunity to test how the media used Wikipedia in an age of instant news. It took him less than fifteen minutes to make up a quote and add it to Jarre’s Wikipedia page. He expected newspapers not to use the quote because it wasn’t linked to any source other than Wikipedia. After the fabricated quote became widespread, however, he admitted his “crime” out of fear the quote would be forever attributed to Jarre. Instead of blaming Wikipedia for allowing the quote to spread, he blamed journalists, who, he said, write articles too quickly to verify sources, adding that Wikipedia moderators had removed the faux quote from the site multiple times within hours of it first being posted.^[4]

6 Bicholim Conflict

This entry showcases what is likely the most effort ever put into perpetrating a Wikipedia hoax. A group of editors on the site created a 4,500-word article all about a 17th-century war between Portugal and India—that never happened. The story was so convincing that Wikipedia granted it “good article” status, an honor granted to less than 1% of articles on the site. The creator of the hoax even nominated the page for “featured article” status, a privilege reserved for the best articles on the site, although the committee responsible for choosing featured articles noted that some of the article’s key sources were “weak” and ended up not selecting it. What they didn’t realize is that nearly every source used in the article was a nonexistent book, and the only mentions of a “Bicholim Conflict” on the internet linked back to the Wikipedia article. The fake history might never have come to light if amateur wiki-detective “ShelfSkewed” had not decided to double-check the article’s sources, leading to the unraveling of the elaborate hoax.^[5]

5 Orange Julius

Some Wikipedia hoaxes are just not believable. For instance, in June 2005, an article appeared on Wikipedia on the creator of Orange Julius (a popular fruit drink similar to an orange Creamsicle). On the surface, the article seemed in order: just a short biography of Julius Freed, featuring sections on his early life and his creation of the Orange Julius. It also mentioned his other “ingenious” inventions, such as the inflatable shrimp trap and the portable pigeon bathing unit. Wait … what? Amazingly, this obviously fake section of the article didn’t get fact-checked until “Jeopardy” legend Ken Jennings discovered it. He set to work disproving the hoax and then posted the results on his personal blog. Nobody was hurt by the little white lie, although, hilariously, Orange Julius briefly ran an ad promoting Freed’s (faux) accomplishments before Wikipedia removed the hoax.^[6]

4 Coati

Back in July 2008, Dylan Breves, a seventeen-year-old student from New York City, edited the Wikipedia article for the coati (a tropical American mammal). The only thing he altered was adding “Brazilian Aardvark” to a list of the creature’s nicknames. Why? While on a trip to the Iguazu Falls (a system of waterfalls in Brazil), Breves and his brother had misidentified coatis as aardvarks. Breves told “The New Yorker” he does not like “being wrong about things”, so he inserted the false nickname “as a joke.” Like many other minor wiki-vandals, he expected Wikipedia to remove his entry for a lack of sources, but, in a bit of circular reporting, an article in “The Telegraph” used Wikipedia as its source, and Wikipedia later sourced the claim using that same “Telegraph” article. From there, references to coatis as Brazilian aardvarks quickly spread, appearing in several major newspapers as well as a book published by the University of Chicago.^[7]

3Edward Owens

Don’t confuse him with Jar’Edo Wens! Edward Owens was a fictional pirate created by students at George Mason University as part of a 2008 course on “Lying about the past” taught by Professor T. Miles Kelly. The students created a website, videos, and, of course, a fake Wikipedia article to promote the hoax, which stated that Owens was an oyster fisherman who turned to piracy as a method of survival during “The Long Depression”—an economic slump in the late 1800s. After several blogs (most notably one connected with “USA Today”) reported the hoax as a factual historical account, the perpetrators admitted their deceit—but that did not stop Kelly from teaching the class again in 2012. This time, the students masqueraded as “Lisa Quinn”, a woman who thought her uncle was a serial killer based on some odd items she found in a trunk that had belonged to him. The students found four fairly similar cases of women murdered in New York City between 1895 and 1897, and created (factual) Wikipedia articles for them. The plan was that Lisa would then discover their names in her uncle’s documents, and the internet would believe it had unmasked a serial killer. Everything was going fine—until the students posted the hoax to Reddit, at which point it took just 26 minutes for someone to call foul, guessing the post was “viral marketing.” This led to the story being quickly picked apart by a bevy of eager Redditors, who pointed out, among other things, that the Wikipedia articles were new and the documents appeared artificially aged.^[8]

2 John Seigenthaler

In May 2005, an editor—like many other hoax creators, identified only by an IP address—created a Wikipedia article stating, among other falsities, that journalist John Seigenthaler was a suspect in the murders of both John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. In fact, Seigenthaler was one of Robert’s closest friends as well as a pallbearer at his funeral. The article wasn’t discredited until November 2005, when a friend of Seigenthaler spotted it and forwarded it to him. Seigenthaler described the incident in “USA Today” as “internet character assassination”, and described the perpetrator of the hoax as having a “sick, twisted mind.” The controversy made national news and marked one of the first times the media asked serious questions on how reliable sites with user-generated content really were. Finally, in December, a 38-year-old deliveryman named Brian Chase revealed himself as the author of the hoax, saying he posted it because he had thought Wikipedia was “some kind of ‘gag’ encyclopedia”.^[9]

1 Chris Benoit

Back in June 2007, Canadian WWE wrestler Chris Benoit killed his wife, his son, and himself in a grisly double murder and suicide. About fourteen hours before police discovered the crime had taken place, a Wikipedia editor based in Stamford, Connecticut (about three miles from WWE headquarters), had edited the Wikipedia page for “Chris Benoit” to speculate that Chris had no-showed a WWE event because of “the death of his wife Nancy.” The mysterious editor (a 19-year-old wrestling fan who had a history of vandalizing Wikipedia articles) later gave a long apology on a Wikinews forum dedicated to the controversy, saying it was an “incredible coincidence” based on “rumors and speculation” he had found on the internet, and “the comment wasn’t meant to be a prank.” Police interviewed him and coerced him to cooperate with their checking of his computer equipment. The lesson here? No matter why you want to do it, don’t vandalize Wikipedia. Just don’t.^[10]

About The Author: About The Author: Izak Bulten is an animator and amateur film historian who loves writing articles about conspiracy theories, pop culture, and “crazy-but-true” stories. He’s created logic puzzles for World Sudoku Champion Thomas Synder’s blog, “The Art of Puzzles“, and the e-book “The Puzzlemaster’s Workshop”. More recently, he’s been writing animation news for his blog, “The Magic Lantern Show“.

Throughout the years many people have perpetrated hoaxes – often for publicity, and sometimes just for the hell of it. Of all the hoaxes through history, the ten in this list are the most famous. In at least two cases (the Book of Mormon, and the Priory of Sion) millions of people have been fooled – or continue to be fooled! In no particular order, here they are:

1. The Book of Mormon 1830

The Book of Mormon is considered by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to be a divinely inspired book of equal value to the Bible. Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon religion, claimed that he was directed by an Angel to a hill near his home in which he found golden tablets containing the full text of the book. With the books he found two objects called the Urim and Thummim which he described as a pair of crystals joined in the form of a large pair of spectacles. Unfortunately, after Smith finished his translation, he had to return the tablets to the Angel, so there is no physical evidence that they ever existed.

The book refers to a group of Jews that moved to and settled in America where Jesus visited them. Some segments of the Book of Mormon contain sections copied directly from the King James version of the Bible – the Bible that was most popular at the time and used by Joseph Smith. One example is Mark 16:15-18 which is quoted nearly word-for-word in Mormon 9:22-24. In addition, the book mimics the literary and linguistic style of the King James Bible. Linguistic experts have stated that the entire book is written by one man, and is not written by a combination of authors (the prophets as claimed by Smith). Additionally, the book refers to animals and crops that did not exist in America until Columbus arrived: ass, bull, calf, cattle, cow, domestic goat, horse, ox, domestic sheep, sow, swine, elephants, wheat, and barley.

The most compelling proof that Joseph Smith was perpetuating a fraud is the Book of Abraham. In 1835 Smith was able to use his Urim and Thummim to translate some Egyptian scrolls that he was given access to (at that time no one could read hieroglyphics). Upon inspection, Smith declared that they contained the Book of Abraham. He promptly translated the lot and it was accepted as scripture by the church. The scrolls vanished and everyone thought the story would end there. But it didn’t – in 1966 the original scrolls were found in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. The scrolls turned out to be a standard Egyptian text that was often buried with the dead. To this day the Book of Abraham is a source of discomfort for the Mormon religion.

2. The Cottingley Fairies 1917

The Cottingley Fairies are a series of five photographs taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, two young cousins living in Cottingley, near Bradford, England, depicting the two in various activities with supposed fairies. Elsie was the daughter of Arthur Wright, one of the earliest qualified electrical engineers. She borrowed her father’s quarter plate camera and took photos in the beck behind the family house. When Mr. Wright, upon developing the plates, saw fairies in the pictures, he considered them fake. After the taking of the second picture, he banned Elsie from using the camera again. Her mother, Polly, however was convinced of their authenticity.

In the summer of 1919, the matter became public and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author of Sherlock Holmes) wrote an article for a leading magazine claiming that they were authentic. Not everyone was taken in by the fraud, as this statement from a leading Doctor at the time attests:

“On the evidence I have no hesitation in saying that these photographs could have been `faked’. I criticise the attitude of those who declared there is something supernatural in the circumstances attending to the taking of these pictures because, as a medical man, I believe that the inculcation of such absurd ideas into the minds of children will result in later life in manifestations and nervous disorder and mental disturbances…”

For fifty years the girls avoided publicity and the hoax continued to be believed by many. In late 1981 and mid 1982 respectively, Frances Way (née Griffiths) and Elsie Hill (née Wright), who took the photographs admitted that the first four pictures were fakes. Speaking of the first photograph in particular, Frances has said: “I don’t see how people could believe they’re real fairies. I could see the backs of them and the hatpins when the photo was being taken.” Both of the girls claimed, right up to their deaths, that the fifth photo was, in fact, authentic.

3. Alien Autopsy 1995

In 1995, Ray Santilli instigated a wide reaching “alien autopsy” controversy when he claimed to possess footage taken in a tent by a U.S. military shortly after the 1947 Roswell UFO incident. Santilli first presented his film to an invited audience of media representatives, UFOlogists and other dignitaries at the Museum of London on 5 May 1995. Although the broadcast version did not show the actual “autopsy”, video editions have the complete and unedited film, plus previously unreleased footage of wreckage presented as the remains of the alien craft reported to have crashed in Roswell. The show features interviews with experts on the authenticity of the film.

On April 4, 2006, two days prior to the UK release of Alien Autopsy Ray Santilli and fellow producer Gary Shoefield announced that their film was only partially real (a “few frames,” in their words), while the rest was a reconstruction of twenty-two rolls of film, averaging four minutes in length, which Santilli had viewed in 1992 but which had subsequently degraded from humidity and heat. According to Santilli, a set was constructed in the living room of an empty flat in Rochester Square, Camden Town, London. John Humphreys, an artist and sculptor, was employed to construct two dummy alien bodies over a period of three weeks, using casts containing sheep brains set in jelly, chicken entrails and knuckle joints.

4. Piltdown Man 1912

The “Piltdown Man” is a famous hoax consisting of fragments of a skull and jawbone collected in 1912 from a gravel pit at Piltdown, a village near Uckfield, East Sussex. The fragments were thought by many experts of the day to be the fossilised remains of a hitherto unknown form of early human. The Latin name Eoanthropus dawsoni (“Dawson’s dawn-man”, after the collector Charles Dawson) was given to the specimen.

The Piltdown hoax is perhaps the most famous archaeological hoax in history. It has been prominent for two reasons: the attention paid to the issue of human evolution, and the length of time (more than 40 years) that elapsed from its discovery to its exposure as a forgery. It was exposed in 1953 as a forgery, consisting of the lower jawbone of an orangutan combined with the skull of a fully developed, modern man. The identity of the Piltdown forger remains unknown, but suspects have included Dawson, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Arthur Conan Doyle as well as numerous others.

From the outset, there were scientists who expressed skepticism about the Piltdown find. G.S. Miller, for example, observed in 1915 that “deliberate malice could hardly have been more successful than the hazards of deposition in so breaking the fossils as to give free scope to individual judgment in fitting the parts together.” In the decades prior to its exposure as a forgery in 1953, scientists increasingly regarded Piltdown as an enigmatic aberration inconsistent with the path of hominid evolution as demonstrated by fossils found elsewhere.

5. Feejee Mermaid 1842

The Feejee Mermaid was presented as a mummified body of something, supposedly a creature that was half mammal and half fish (like a grotesque version of normal mermaid stories). The original exhibit was popularized by circus great P.T. Barnum, but has since been copied many times in other attractions, including the collection of famed showman Robert Ripley. The original exhibit was shown around the United States, but was lost in the 1860s when Barnum’s museum caught fire. The exhibit has since been acquired by Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and is currently housed in the museum’s attic storage area.

The Fiji mermaid came into Barnum’s possession via his Boston counterpart Moses Kimball, who brought it down to Barnum in late spring of 1842. On June 18, Barnum and Kimball entered into a written agreement to exploit this “curiosity supposed to be a mermaid.” Kimball would remain the creature’s sole owner and Barnum would lease it for $12.50 a week. Barnum christened his artefact “The Feejee Mermaid”.

In reality, the mermaid was a gaff, the work of an Indonesian craftsman using either papier-mâché and materials from exotic fish, or the tail of a fish and a torso of a baby orangutan, stitched together with the head of a monkey

6. The Priory of Sion 1956

The Priory of Sion has been characterized as anything from the most influential secret society in Western history to a modern Rosicrucian-esque group, but, ultimately, has been shown to be a hoax created in 1956 by Pierre Plantard, a pretender to the French throne. The evidence presented in support of its historical existence is not considered authentic or persuasive by established historians, academics, and universities, and the evidence was later discovered to have been forged and then planted in various locations around France by Plantard and his associates.

Between 1961 and 1984 Plantard contrived a mythical pedigree of the Priory of Sion claiming that it was the offshoot of the monastic order housed in the Abbey of Sion, which had been founded in the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the First Crusade and later absorbed by the Jesuits in 1617. Plantard hoped that the Priory of Sion would become an influential cryptopolitical irregular masonic lodge dedicated to the restoration of chivalry and monarchy, which would promote Plantard’s own claim to the throne of France.

The priory recently gained interest again (despite easily obtainable proof that it is a fake) through the publication of the book The Davinci Code which the author, Dan Brown, claims to be fact (proving that he lied outright about his alleged years of research for the book).

7. The Turk 1717

The Turk was a fake chess-playing machine of the late 18th century, promoted as an automaton but later proved to be a hoax. The Turk made its debut in 1770 at Schönbrunn Palace. Its owner, Kempelen addressed the court, presenting what he had built, and began the demonstration of the machine and its parts. With every showing of the Turk, Kempelen began by opening the doors and drawers of the cabinet, allowing members of the audience to inspect the machine. Following this display, Kempelen would announce that the machine was ready for a challenger.

Kempelen would inform the player that the Turk would use the white pieces and have the first move. Between moves the Turk kept its left arm on the cushion. The Turk could nod twice if it threatened its opponent’s queen, and three times upon placing the king in check. If an opponent made an illegal move, the Turk would shake its head, move the piece back and make its own move, thus forcing a forfeit of its opponent’s move. Observers of the Turk would state that the machine played aggressively, and typically beat its opponents within thirty minutes.

The Turk was in fact a mechanical illusion that allowed a human chess master to hide inside and operate the machine. With a skilled operator, the Turk won most of the games played. The apparatus was demonstrated around Europe and the Americas for over 80 years until its destruction by fire in 1854, playing and defeating many challengers including statesmen such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin.

8. Loch Ness – the Surgeon’s Photo 1934

One of the most iconic images of Nessie is known as the ‘Surgeon’s Photograph’ which many consider to be good evidence of the monster, although doubts about the photograph’s authenticity were expressed from the beginning. The image was revealed as a hoax in the 1990s. The photographer, a gynecologist named Robert Kenneth Wilson, never claimed it to be a picture of the monster. He merely claimed to have photographed “something in the water”. The photo is often cropped to make the monster seem huge, while the original uncropped shot shows the other end of the loch and the monster in the center.

Just a year before the hoax was revealed, the makers of Discovery Communications’ documentary Loch Ness Discovered did an analysis of the uncropped image and found a white object evident in every version of the photo, implying that it was on the negative. “It seems to be the source of ripples in the water, almost as if the object was towed by something”, the narrator said. “But science cannot rule out it was just a blemish on the negative,” he continued. Additionally, analysis of the full photograph revealed the object to be quite small, only about two to three feet long.

9. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion 1890

The Protocol of the Elders of Zion is a text that purports to describe a Jewish and Masonic plot to achieve world domination. It is one of the most well known and discussed examples of literary forgery. Numerous independent investigations have concluded it to be either a plagiarism or a hoax. The Protocols is widely considered to be the beginning of contemporary conspiracy theory literature, and takes the form of an instruction manual to a new member of the “elders,” describing how they will run the world through control of the media and finance, and replace the traditional social order with one based on mass manipulation.

Continued usage of the Protocols as an antisemitic propaganda tool substantially diminished with the defeat of the Nazis in World War II. It is still frequently quoted and reprinted by some anti-Semitic circles, and is sometimes used as evidence of an alleged Jewish cabal, especially in the Middle East. Elements of the text in the Protocols appears to be plagiarized from an 1864 pamphlet, Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu, written by the French satirist Maurice Joly. Joly’s work attacks the political ambitions of Napoleon III using Machiavelli as a diabolical plotter in Hell as a stand-in for Napoleon’s views.

Interestingly, many of the protocols aims have been achieved. For example: Universal suffrage, wide acceptance of pornography, the spread of Darwinism, Socialism, and Materialism.

10. The Cardiff Giant 1869

The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous hoaxes in American history, was a 10-foot-tall (3m) “petrified man” uncovered on October 16, 1869 by workers digging a well behind the barn of William C. “Stub” Newell in Cardiff, New York. Both it and an unauthorized copy made by P.T. Barnum are still on display. The Giant was the creation of a New York tobacconist named George Hull. Hull, an atheist, decided to create the giant after an argument with a fundamentalist minister named Mr. Turk about a passage in Genesis that stated that there were giants who once lived on earth.

Hull hired men to carve out a 10-feet-long, 4.5 inches block of gypsum in Fort Dodge, Iowa, telling them it was intended for a monument of Abraham Lincoln in New York. He shipped the block to Chicago, where he hired a German stonecutter to carve it into the likeness of a man and swore him to secrecy. Various stains and acids were used to make the giant appear to be old and weather beaten, and the giant’s surface was beaten with steel knitting needles embedded in a board to simulate pores. When the giant had been buried for a year, Newell hired two men, Gideon Emmons and Henry Nichols, ostensibly to dig a well. When they found the Giant, one of them has been attributed to saying “I declare, some old Indian has been buried here!”.

The giant drew such crowds that showman P.T. Barnum offered $60,000 for a three-month lease of it (in his memoirs he said he wanted to buy it). When the syndicate turned him down he hired a man to covertly model the giant’s shape in wax and create a plaster replica. He put his giant on display in New York, claiming that his was the real giant and the Cardiff Giant was a fake. On February 2, 1870 both giants were revealed as fakes in court. The judge ruled that Barnum could not be sued for calling a fake giant a fake.

Nowadays fact checking is an easy task. Hoaxes, Pranks, and Scams are everywhere, and most people have learned how to spot them instinctively. Information travels the globe nearly instantly and most everything printed or posted online will be vetted by hundreds or thousands of people.

However, before the information age when word traveled slow it was much easier to deceive someone. Once a rumor had spread, it was often too late to reverse it and it entered history as fact, sometimes for months or even years. While these may sound completely unbelievable by today’s standards these tales amazed, baffled, or frightened even the some of the smartest scholars in history.

Top 10 Fantastically Elaborate Hoaxes

10 The Patagonian Giants

First mentioned in the 1520’s, stories of a tribe of 12-foot-tall giants in Patagonia, South America had been spread by dozens of explorers for over 200 years. In 1766 Commodore John Byron returned to London after circumnavigating the globe aboard the HMS Dolphin. Stories from his crew spread and on May 9th, 1766 the rumor first appeared in print in the Gentlemen’s Magazine. Quickly after other newspapers and journals picked up and printed the story. In this version the crew recalled a tribe of 9-foot-tall giants. Many people questioned the rumors and, finally 7 years later a full account of Byron’s journey was released. This revealed that the tallest “giant” encountered was only 6 feet 6 inches, still tall compared to many European’s of the time, but certainly not a giant as the rumors described.^[1]

9 Solar Armor

Perhaps the fascination with Science Fiction stories of the time sparked this bizarre story. In 1874 a Nevada newspaper known as the Territorial Enterprise published a story of the sad fate of inventor Jonathan Newhouse. The tale stated the man had invented a way to beat the desert heat, and he set out on foot from Virginia City (where the newspaper was based) to Death Valley clothed in his Solar Armor. The armor was said to be a sponge suit that cooled the wearer by means of a “frigorific mixture”. However, the armor proved to work too well, and the man was found frozen solid a day later, a foot-long icicle hanging from his nose. Newspapers from around the world reprinted the story, which was later proved to be the satirical work of Dan De Quille, a colleague of Mark Twain, who also wrote for the paper.^[2]

8 The Native of Formosa

At the start of the 18th century most Europeans had little to no knowledge of Asian culture, thus making them exceptionally gullible to believe stories from the strange lands of the Orient. When one unusual man turned up claiming to be from the land of Formosa, his strange customs and beliefs were enough to convince many. He had blonde hair and white skin and spoke with a Dutch accent; however, no one knew what someone from Formosa (now modern Taiwan) should look like. His customs were strange: babbling in an unknown language, eating raw meat, sleeping upright in a chair, and worshiping the sun and moon. Baptized in Scotland, he took on the name George Psalmanazar, and traveled to England. There he was revered as a celebrity, even publishing a book on the history of the land of Formosa. He of course had many critics and eventually in 1706 he confessed that he was an impostor.^[3]

7 Princess Caraboo

Nearly 100 years after the deceit of George Psalmanazar, the English would fall prey to another impostor. On April 3rd 1817 a beautiful woman arrived in the small town of Almondsbury, she appeared to be a foreigner, speaking no known language and wearing a shawl twisted to resemble a turban. A local magistrate and his wife took the lady in and began trying to unravel the mystery of who she could be. They learned the woman’s name as she would frequently point at herself saying Caraboo. Soon after a sailor arrived in town who claimed to speak her language. He explained that she was a Princess from the faraway island of Javasu. Pirates had abducted her, and she was only able to escape by jumping overboard while in the English Channel, swimming to safety. The family was delighted to hear that they were housing a princess and announced it to the newspapers, unfortunately this fame would be her undoing. A woman recognized her description and reveled her identity, Mary Baker a former servant of hers.^[4]

6 The Shakespeare Forgeries

What should a child do when they are ignored and neglected by their father? Well in this case the answer was to create a multitude of forgeries dedicated to the father’s idol, a deception he would take to his grave refusing to believe was untrue. The bookseller Samuel Ireland was a Shakespeare worshiping relic hunter, devoting his life to seeking out anything to add to his collection. In 1794 his eighteen-year-old son, William brought him a mortgage document, supposedly signed by the Bard himself. William worked at a law office and claimed to have found this in some estate papers. Of course, Samuel was delighted, and William was no longer just an afterthought in his life. The forgeries would continue, a love letter to Anne Hathaway came next and following that the most brazen of all, a lost play. Yes, William wrote a play titled Vortigern and passed it off as a Shakespearean work. Despite suspicion, this play was performed once, though the actors caught on and realized it was only a farce.^[5]

10 Obvious Lies That Changed The World

5 Scalps by mail

Not all hoaxes are meant just to deceive, in this case there was a much larger purpose; aiding the American war effort in 1782 by convincing Europe to turn against the British. Benjamin Franklin was known to purport several hoaxes in his time. For this one he had fake newspaper printed entitled Supplement to the Boston Independent Chronicle. This alleged that American Indian warriors were sending hundreds of scalps as war trophies to British Royalty and members of Parliament. For extra emphasis, they were described as the scalps of women and children. This shocked the public opinion on the British, of course even once revealed to be untrue many would still believe or never follow up to learn the actual truth.^[6]

4 Vrain Lucas

For another take on forgery, let us examine the case of Vrain Lucas, perhaps the most ambitious forger in history. In 1851 Vrain met Michel Chasles, a French mathematician, Chasles was intrigued when shown letters Vrain claimed he had found. He claimed they were written by such noteworthy names as Joan of Arc and Charlemagne. When Chasles offered to buy the documents, the real forgery began. Vrain wrote letters from Julius Caesar, Aristotle, Shakespeare, Mary Magdalene, Alexander the Great and more. The letters shared one thing that kept Chasles buying, they all spoke highly of France. Perhaps being the patriot that he was kept him from realizing some obvious errors, first all the letters were written in French and all were on the same watermarked paper, even ones supposedly written before paper was invented. Thousands of letters and eighteen years later Chasles finally caught on and Vrain was sentenced to 2 years in jail. His greatest forgery would go undelivered, a letter from Jesus, written in French, of course.^[7]

3 The Turk

Seemingly impossible machines have fascinated people for centuries. In the 1700’s there were automata, ingeniously built machines that were widely praised and admired. In 1769, the most famous of them was built by a Hungarian nobleman, The Great Chess Automaton, commonly known as the Turk. The machine consisted of a wooden figure dressed in Turkish clothes that emerged from a large wooden box. Billed as being an actual thinking machine, it would be wound up where then it would play chess against a human opponent. Many clever deceptions were in place to convince the audience that this was indeed only a machine. Sliding panels revealed the interior to be only gears and when the machine moved the chess pieces it was accompanied by grinding and whirring of gears. The secret to the machine’s operation was constantly being speculated. The real secret finally being discovered that a chess master was cleverly placed inside the gear box in a way that could not be seen. His movements along with magnetic chess pieces being the clever way this device worked.^[8]

2 The Great Stock Exchange Hoax

In another instance of “obviously illegal hoax purported for financial gain” we have this doozy. In 1814 a man wearing the uniform of a British military officer arrived at an inn and announced the war was over, Napoleon had been killed and the government restored. The people were ecstatic, horses were sent to London to deliver the news. The people rejoiced and stocks soared. This was soon revealed as a hoax, Napoleon was still alive. The subsequent investigation uncovered a scheme to manipulate the prices on the London Stock Exchange, and a scapegoat was arrested for masterminding the entire plan. Lord Thomas Cochrane was imprisoned with only some circumstantial evidence. Eventually he would be pardoned by the King, as no real evidence was ever found, and the real mastermind behind this plot was never found.^[9]

1 Manhattan is sinking

It is truly baffling that people could have believed this story, and it is largely unverified. However, it has made its way into history despite the lack of printed proof. The story goes that a rumor began to circulate in 1824 stating that due to the large amount of new construction, the island of Manhattan had begun to tilt and was slowly tipping into the ocean. This rumor continued to circulate and grow for a few weeks, until a retired carpenter proposed an ingenious solution. The carpenter who identified himself as Lozier, suggested the island be sawed in half, where it could then be towed out to sea and turned around. By turning it around the weight distribution would be corrected and the island parts could then be rejoined. More and more workers began to respond to the advertisement for this employment and the date was set. When this date came Lozier was nowhere to be found and the workers were left angry and unemployed.^[10]

10 Viral Photos That Were Proven To Be Hoaxes

About The Author: Brad D Fuller is a retired US Navy sailor living in small town Ohio. He is also a Board Game Designer and Collector.

A hoax is usually defined as a humorous deception. While people may set out to deceive for all sorts of reasons – money, pride, guilt, being just a few, the hoaxer’s motives are purer. They will spend days, sometimes years, perpetuating the hoax for their own private amusement.

Some hoaxers go to enormous trouble, time and money to really sell their hoax to their unsuspecting target. Unfortunately, when, inevitably perhaps, the joke is rumbled, the targets do not always appreciate the amount of effort that was put in.

Here are 10 hoaxes that were perpetrated, just for the fun of it.

See Also: 10 Viral Photos That Were Proven To Be Hoaxes

10 Martin Marty and Franz Bibfeldt

Franz Bibfeldt was, supposedly, a German theologian who had written extensively about the Year Zero, that in-between year when the old BC calendar ended, and the new AD calendar began. Bibfeldt’s 1927 PhD thesis has been cited extensively in a number of academic periodicals.

Which is strange, since he never wrote a PhD thesis.

In fact, Bibfeldt never wrote anything. He began life as a footnote in a college essay. Robert Clausen, with a deadline looming, invented Bibfeldt and quoted him in his essay, relying on the fact that his tutor wouldn’t check. His roommate, Martin Marty, thought the made-up name was funny, and the two began to cite him everywhere. They wrote about him in the college magazine, and placed orders for his books at the university bookshop (the request always came back as out of stock), and made loan requests at the library. (Same).

Since his first appearance, Franz Bibfeldt has been embraced by theologians with a sense of humor all around the world, although most enthusiastically in the Divinity School at The University of Chicago, where, coincidentally, Martin Marty taught for 35 years.

9 The Dreadnought Hoax

Virginia Woolf is not particularly remembered for her practical jokes. However, in 1910, she, along with several literary friends, dressed in exotic clothes, blacked their faces and blagged their way onto a famous British battleship.

The friends, all part of the Bloomsbury group of modernist writers, posed as the Abyssinian royal family, with Woolf’s brother playing the part of the Abyssinian emperor. To get into the role, the friends all learned a little Swahili. Unfortunately, Swahili was not the official, nor the unofficial, language of Abyssinia, now Ethiopia.

But points for trying.

The welcome committee seemed not to notice that these were white people in make-up, and gave the them the VIP tour of the battleship. They also failed to notice that the beard of one of the party wasn’t quite attached to his face, which was lucky. Luckier still, the beard fell off altogether just after they disembarked.
When the story broke, the Royal Navy were embarrassed and threatened to sue. In the end, they decided to let the matter quietly drop. Which was probably wise. After all, the ‘Abyssinian’s’ disguise was rather thin. And, while the group did take the trouble to learn Swahili, no one bothered to check how to spell Abyssinia when they wrote the memo telling the navy they were coming.

That should have tipped them off right there.

8 The Banana Skin Hoax

The 1960s was an era of peace, love and experimentation. In particular, experimentation with drugs. LSD was the drug of the moment, but, despite what legend would have us believe, it was not always readily available. Nor was it cheap.

A rumor began to spread that bananas had the same chemical ingredients as LSD, and so, with the right treatment, could be turned from humble fruit to fabulous hallucinogenic. Strangely, the rumor was given credence by the song Mellow Yellow, by Donovan, which was released at the same time. The lyrics, which Donovan claimed were about a yellow vibrator, accidentally and coincidentally could be interpreted as referring to the special properties of the ‘electrical banana’, which, Donovan said, ‘Is bound to be the very next phase’.

And it was.

While it is true that bananas did contain some of the ingredients of LSD, principally serotonin, the amounts were far to small to produce any effect on the smoker. The origin of the hoax is thought to have been the 1967 issue of a counterculture magazine called Berkeley Barb, where the Recipe of the Week explained how to prepare the banana skins. (Apparently, you only used the white underside of the banana skin, not the whole thing).

Within a few months, the story was accepted as fact, and stories about the properties of bananas were reported in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Another recipe for cooking the drug appeared in The Anarchist Handbook of 1970, showing that, despite the fact that smokers never got high, the rumor just would not quit.

In fact, the story still resurfaces regularly, despite the fact that it has been thoroughly debunked. No one seems to have gained from the hoax, except, perhaps, banana growers.

7 The Maggie Murphy Potato Hoax

Some hoaxes require elaborate planning. Others, not so much. Joseph B Swan preferred to go with the easy option. Swan was a farmer from Colorado, who, apparently, had a taste for practical jokes. And potatoes.

With the aid of the local newspaper, he persuaded the potato growing community that he had managed to grow 26,000 pounds of potatoes in a single year on one acre of land, with his special variety, called the Maggie Murphy.

Which is a lot of spuds.

Not only that, he said, but he managed to grow a giant potato, so large it weighed in at over 86 pounds.

The potato growing community is, it seems, skeptical by nature, and they wanted proof. Swan, and his reporter friend, decided to provide it, and a photograph of swan hefting an enormous potato over his shoulder went the 1895 equivalent of ‘viral’.

The photograph was reproduced all over the country, but some experts soon declared it to be faked. They were right. The ‘potato’ was, in fact, a piece of wood, specially carved for the purpose. This didn’t stop enthusiastic potato growers inundating Swan with letters begging for some of his special potato seed.

In the end, Swan got fed up with the whole joke, and informed the disappointed potato enthusiasts that the magnificent potato had been stolen, and he was going out of the spud business.

6 The Erotic Novel Hoax

There has always been an argument about what is, and what is not, good literature. When a book contains a lot of sex, the lines can be even more blurred
In an experiment to prove that even reputable publishing houses will publish any old rubbish as long as it contains steamy sex scenes, a group of 24 journalists from Newsday, led by columnist Mike McGrady, jointly wrote ‘Naked Came the Stranger’.

They deliberately wrote the novel badly, with wooden characters, rubbish dialogue and a ridiculous plot. But with lots and lots of gratuitous sex.

Not only was the novel picked up by a publisher, it was reviewed in reputable newspapers, including The New York Times, who failed to spot that it was a spoof. The book even became a best seller.

At which point, the purpose of the joke seemed to go awry a little.

McGrady and his colleagues revealed that the book was a hoax, which only further increased sales. The group ‘outed’ themselves on The David Frost’ show, following which the book spent 13 weeks on The New York Times Bestseller List.

A film of the same name, which had nothing to do with their book, but which piggy-backed off its notoriety, also followed.

The moral of the story seems to be, perhaps, that trying to define what ‘literature’ is, is an impossible task. Alternatively, it might just mean that people like mucky books.

Who can tell?

5 The Plainfield Teacher’s College Football Team

1941 was a good year for the Plainfield Teacher’s College Football Team.

Morris Newburger and his friends took an interest in college football, and would study the results, which were printed in the back of the New York newspapers.
One day, presumably when he had nothing much to do, Newburger took to wondering how the scores were gathered, and whether some of the more unlikely sounding colleges were actually real.

Which got him wondering further. What if someone sent in an imaginary score? Would the newspaper print it?

There was only one way to find out, so he called all the New York Times, the Herald Tribune, and every other New York paper he could think of. And he told them that Plainfield Teachers College had beaten Winona, 27-3.

That Sunday, the result was printed on the back page of the Herald Tribune. And all 11 other New York papers.

He didn’t stop there.

The following week Plainfield Teachers College won again, and Newburger and his friends phoned all the New York papers, and the papers in Philadelphia. Now the college was playing in 2 states.

Interest in the team grew, and Newburger had a phone line installed, especially for the college football team. They began writing press releases, acquired a nickname, and new school colors (mauve and purple. Ouch).

Then they invented their star player, Johnny Chung. Half Hawaiian, half Chinese, Chung was 6 foot 3 and weighed 212 pounds. They even gave details of his half time snack.

And they composed a song, largely ripped off from Cole Porter’s hit ‘You’re The Top’.

The friends hoped that Plainfield would finish the season undefeated, and they may have succeeded, except that Time magazine received a tip off about the hoax, and they published the story of how the newspapers had been duped

Newburger sent out one final press release to the New York and Philadelphia papers, saying ‘Due to flunkings in the midterm examinations, Plainfield Teachers has been forced to call off its last two scheduled games.’

No one printed it

4 The Chess Playing Automaton

The Mechanical Turk was, supposedly, a forerunner of Deep Blue, the chess playing supercomputer. The Turk, however, was built in the 18th Century and, if authentic, it was almost 2 centuries ahead of its time.

Of course, The Mechanical Turk was anything but authentic.

Billed as a machine that could beat the strongest chess player, the Turk was created by Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen, a Hungarian inventor, and was unveiled at the royal court in Vienna in 1770, for the amusement of the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. It continued to be exhibited occasionally for almost 100 years before it was destroyed in a fire. Napoleon is said to have played (and lost) against it. Ditto Benjamin Franklin and a Russian Czar.

In fact, the Turk won most of his games. Possibly because the player was put off by the strangeness of their opponent.

In fact, the Mechanical Turk was a complete illusion. A human chess player hid in a specially built space behind the ostentatious machinery. The interior of the machine was constructed to so that the audience believed that they were looking all the way through it, while in fact, the back of the machine had a secret compartment. The long robes of the automaton Turk concealed the door. A master chess player would simply hide inside the machine, and play against their opponent, who was usually so unnerved that he lost quickly.

Which is just as well because the cavity in which the hidden player sat was small and very uncomfortable.

3 The Dictionary Hoax

Lexicographers and logologists are not renowned for their abilities as pranksters. Rupert Hughes was obviously an exception. He compiled the Music-Lovers Encyclopedia, which was published a number of times between 1905 and 1956.

The final entry in the encyclopedia was ZZXJOANW, which, he said, was pronounced ‘Shaw’ and was defined as a Maori word meaning ‘Drum’ or ‘Fife’.

Which was odd.

The entry remained in the encyclopedia for 70 years before anyone realized quite how odd. The Maori language has 14 letters, which does not include either Z or X. Maori words also always end in a vowel.

Whatever ever else the word might mean, it was extremely unlikely that it was a Maori word meaning drum.

The compiler of a musical encyclopedia would probably also have been aware that Maoris do not use drums in their traditional music.

There have been lots of theories about the entry (the discovery of which came too late for anyone to question the author), but it is entirely possible that they merely wanted to send kisses to someone named Joan Shaw.

Which, if true, is kind of nice.

2 The Science Fair Hoax

Most Science Fair projects are a bit boring. A baking soda volcano, or invisible ink, powering your alarm clock with a potato (great excuse for being late for class), or growing crystals are the usual sorts of things you will find in a school science fair.

In 1997, however, Nathan Zohner decided to think bigger. His Science Fair Project was, he said, an investigation into that dangerous chemical compound dihydrogen monoxide, or DHMO.

He gave 50 of his fellow students a copy of a report entitled “Dihydrogen Monoxide: The Unrecognized Killer”, in which he accurately listed the dangers of DHMO. If ingested it could cause excessive urination, bloating, sweating or even death. It is also known to be a major component of Acid Rain, and was so strong it could even cause metal corrosion.

Based on this information, Zohner’s classmates voted to ban DHMO.

Or water, as it is also called.

It turned out, Nathan Zohner’s Science Fair Project was not called “Dihydrogen Monoxide: The Unrecognized Killer”, it was called, “How Gullible Are We?”, and was an investigation into the lack of critical thinking in our responses to what we perceive to be scientific fact.

He took first prize.

1 Johann Beringer’s Lying Stones

Dr Johann Berringer was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Würzburg in Germany in 1725, and was known to be just a little bit pompous. Which is perhaps why his colleagues decided to prank him.

Berringer had a particular interest in ‘lapides figurati’, stones which had formed naturally into recognizable images. His colleagues ‘planted’ a large number of stones. A very large number. In all, over 2000 stones were ‘discovered’ in 6 months, to Berringer’s great delight, and to the particular amusement of 2 of his colleagues

The joke soured, somewhat, when Berringer decided to write a book about his finds. His collection included stones in the shape of insects, small animals, astronomical features, and even a Hebrew text which spelled out the name ‘Jehovah’, which you might think would have tipped him off.

It didn’t.

He published Lithographiae Wirceburgensis in 1726, in which he wrote “The figures expressed on these stones, especially those of insects, are so exactly fitted to the dimensions of the stones, that one would swear that they are the work of a very meticulous sculptor. For there is scarcely one in which the dimensions of the figure are not commonly commensurate to the length and breadth of the tablet.”

Still didn’t twig.

In short, Johann Berringer was well and truly had. His colleagues, realizing that the joke had gone too far, tried to dissuade him from publishing, without acknowledging what they had done. They pointed out that some of the stones bore what looked uncannily like chisel-marks, but Berringer asserted that any chisel must have been wielded by God himself.

His colleague’s apparent skepticism, mixed with Berringer’s own pomposity, was a fatal combination and he published, only to become a laughing stock.

When he finally realized what had happened, Berringer sued his 2 colleagues, and the resulting scandal ruined the careers of all 3 of them

About The Author: Ward Hazell is a freelance writer and travel writer, currently also studying for a PhD in English Literature

Archaeologists spend their lives searching for great discoveries that will reveal something amazing about the past. Unfortunately, there are people who love to mess with them. Some people create hoaxes for fun, some for profit, and some to bolster their own pet theories about history. Most hoaxes are easy to detect—if a find looks too good to be true, it often is. Many hoaxes are also pretty poorly done. But sometimes, hoaxers go the extra mile.

Here are ten hoaxes that were carved in stone.

10 Crystal Skulls

In the 19th century, startling finds started coming out of central America that excited both the archaeological and spiritual communities. Skulls carved in intricate detail made from beautiful crystal were snapped up by private collectors and museums alike. While for researchers, they appeared to be the products of a little-known civilization, others thought they had magical properties. These skulls were claimed to be something between mystical healing devices and ancient computers. Could they have been the product of Atlantis or even aliens?

Their first known appearances certainly had a good pedigree. Eugène Boban was the official archaeologist of the Mexican emperor Maximilian I, so he would have had access to ancient sites. Examples of his discoveries ended up in the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris and the British Museum. There were doubts about their origin, however.

Scientific studies of the skulls revealed that the crystal they are carved from is unlikely to have found its way to Mesoamerica. Further examination with electron microscopes showed tell-tale scratches made by modern cutting tools—even identifying them as coming from a German workshop. Whatever Indiana Jones might suggest, they were definitely not the work of interdimensional travelers.^[1]

9 Glamis Stone

Scotland is dotted with standing stones that are carved with enigmatic symbols and figures. These Pictish stones often carry fascinating collections of images that some have interpreted as a form of writing—how the symbols are grouped together may suggest a message. No attempts at decipherment have yet been successful, though.

In 1929, however, a stone with a clear writing system was dug up by William Johnston near Glamis. It had four lines of an unmistakably runic alphabet. There was immediate excitement, and an expert on ancient British history was dispatched to examine it. He declared that it was the record of a major battle that had been fought in the area in the 7th century.

Despite this, other experts soon cast doubt on this amazing discovery. The runes were not native to the area and did not carry a message in an old language. Decoding the runes showed they were simply an English message written in the runic alphabet. “Stone cist. Found here. And also to the North.” Who planted this stone is unknown, but they might have left a more exciting Easter egg for people to translate.^[2]

8 Kensington Stone

The Norse Sagas of the Greenlanders and Erik the Red from the 13th century describe how Europeans reached the North American continent centuries before Columbus. Most scholars thought these were fanciful stories until evidence of a Norse settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows in Canada were discovered in the 1960s. Some, however, think there is more evidence of Norse contact than some ruins in the ground.

In 1898, a Swedish immigrant named Olof Ohman discovered a large stone with strange markings on it while clearing land in Minnesota. The markings were clearly runic, so they were sent to be translated by experts. The inscription reads:

“We are 8 Goths [Swedes] and 22 Norwegians on an exploration journey from Vinland through the West. We had camp by a lake with 2 skerries one day’s journey north from this stone. We were out and fished one day. After we came home we found 10 of our men red with blood and dead. AVM [Ave Virgo Maria, or Hail, Virgin Mary] save us from evil. We have 10 of our party by the sea to look after our ships, 14 days’ journey from this island. Year 1362.”