Famous Hoaxes & Lies
February 2012
CNN reported that the body of the late singer and actress was discovered by her on-again off-again boyfriend Ray J. Norwood. It was later reported that Ray J. was nowhere near the hotel when Houston's body was found.
January 2012
A tweet by a famous reality television star gave momentum to the false rumor that iconic singer Cher had died and the fabricated re-tweet by a major news network announcing the singer's death.
January 2012
The false reports of the death of the legendary Penn State college football coach Joe Paterno was announced by several media outlets more than 12 hours before his actual death
December 2011
When tweets of rocker Jon Bon Jovi's death overtook the Internet just before Christmas, he posted this photo of himself as proof that he was alive and well.
August 2011
Twitter followers claimed yet another victim when rumors of this actor and martial artist’s death ran rampant. This wasn't the first Chan death rumor.
July 2011
There was no need to fly the U.S. flag at half-staff because reports about the death of President Barack Obama were quickly attributed to hackers of this network’s Twitter feed.
June 2011
A blog about the struggles of Amina Arraf, a lesbian Syrian-American living in Damascus, gained national attention in 2011 when she was thought to have been kidnapped by armed men, but it turned out to be tantalizing Internet fiction.
May 2011
Doctors determined that this family of four conned ABC into building them a new home by claiming that their two daughters suffered from this disease caused by toxins in their home.
May 2011
A woman claiming to be named Kerry Campbell duped everyone into thinking she injected her 8-year-old daughter with Botox.
September 2010
The Vancouver, Wash., woman gained international sympathy when she claimed a stranger threw acid on her face outside a coffee shop, causing horrific burns
October 2009
A family featured on this reality show gained sympathy from around the world when they claimed their 6-year-old son had floated away in a giant helium-filled balloon.
June 2009
This former governor initially attributed his abrupt six-day departure in 2009 to a hiking trip on the Appalachian Trail. After a reporter intercepted him at an airport, he made a startling confession.
June 2009
This Chicago woman captivated anti-abortion proponents with false tales about choosing to carry her terminally ill child to term. Who was the baby?
May 2009
This 22-year-old college student’s fake quote on Wikipedia about the 2009 death of this Oscar-winning composer was used in major newspaper obituaries around the world.
October 2008
A volunteer for this 2008 presidential candidate, Todd falsely claimed to have been the victim of a politically motivated mugging and assault by a supporter of this Democratic opponent.
February 2008
The staged disappearance of this 9-year-old turned out to be a family affair, leading to the convictions of her mother and several family members.
August 2008
Halloween came early in 2008 when a Georgia police officer and a former corrections officer claimed to have discovered the corpse of Bigfoot while hiking in the woods. DNA evidence proved them wrong.
July 2008
Do you believe in monsters? Some were left gawking when the carcass of this unidentified creature washed ashore on a New York beach in the summer of 2008.
August 2006
Many were skeptical when former school teacher John Mark Carr confessed to the murder of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey. However, his DNA was not a match to evidence found on JonBenet’s body.
September 2006
A YouTube video blog by 15-year-old Bree Avery was outed as fictional
February 2006
Many were shocked to learn that Frey’s memoir about his battle with alcohol and drug addiction was a work of fiction.
April 2005
After Wilbanks disappeared four days before her wedding, she called her fiancé and claimed to have been abducted and sexually assaulted, sparking media frenzy and a nationwide search.
December 2004
The Yes Men made a mockery of the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, when Andy Bichlbaum appeared on BBC World News in a fake news hijinks.
May 2004
Photos published in the Daily Mirror of Iraqi prisoners being tortured by British soldiers were proven to be staged, resulting in a newsroom shake-up.
March 2004
When this college student vanished in 2004 and was found four days later in a marsh, police quickly concluded that she had faked her kidnapping
May 2003
This New York Times reporter resigned in 2003 when it was proven that he had plagiarized and fabricated multiple articles.
May 2001
Thousands mourned the death of this 19-year-old from Kansas after following her online diary detailing her battle with cancer. But she never existed.
1999
Believed by some to be the most elaborate movie hoax in history, this 1999 “documentary” unveiling the recovered footage of three missing filmmakers left audiences debating its authenticity.
1998
From 1995 to 1998, this former journalist at The New Republic fabricated multiple articles, but it was this story about a 15-year-old hacker that initiated his downfall.
1995
Music and video producer Ray Santilli claimed to have acquired a film of the autopsy of an extraterrestrial that had been discovered in the wreckage of a flying saucer that crashed in 1947 near Roswell, N.M.
1994
Thought to be the first Internet hoax to reach the masses, a 1994 press release bearing a Vatican City dateline announced that Microsoft was purchasing the Roman Catholic Church to capitalize on the potential growth in the religious market.
1994
The South Carolina woman was convicted of murdering her children after initially reporting to police that a black man had stolen her car with her children still inside.
April 1994
A magazine article announcing a bill prohibiting web surfing while intoxicated generated so many outraged phone calls to Congress that this senator's office released a denial of the rumor that he was the bill's sponsor.
April 1983
Handwritten volumes of secret diaries written by Adolf Hitler were proven to be forgeries, causing a major shake-up at these media publications.
1981
After Cooke accepted this prestigious award in 1981, the editors at the Washington Post began to doubt her 1980 article detailing the life of Jimmy, an 8-year-old heroin addict, when she was unable to provide proof of his existence.
1980
Ruiz was stripped of her first-place title when the Boston Athletic Association determined that she did not complete the entire course.
1969
American college students started a rumor that The Beatles' guitarist Paul McCartney had died in 1966 and was replaced by this look-alike
1953
This fossilized skull and jaw of an early human unearthed in 1912 was later proven to be a composite of multiple species.
1938
On Halloween Eve in 1938, this CBS radio drama about an alien invasion prompted mass hysteria in many American households.
1842
Showman P.T. Barnum fooled and shocked audiences with this horrific manmade creature
1869
Dubbed as the greatest hoax in American history, this 10-foot-tallstone giant, exhumed in 1869 in Cardiff, in upstate New York, sparked heated religious debates concerning this biblical passage.
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