Hoax

From Wikinfo

A hoax is an attempt to trick one or more people to believe that something false is real. Unlike a fraud or con, which are made for illicit financial or material gain, or a pious fraud, which is perpetrated for religious reasons, a hoax is often perpetrated as a practical joke with a humorous intent, to cause embarrassment, for personal aggrandizement or to serve political purposes. Still, many confidence tricks and the like have also been labeled as hoaxes.

Many hoaxes are also motivated by a desire to satirize or educate by exposing the credulity of the public or the absurdity of the target: literary and artistic hoaxes are often of this sort, although political hoaxes are sometimes motivated in part or whole by the desire to ridicule or expose politicians or political institutions.

The status of a given factoid as reliable or hoax is often the subject of considerable controversy.

Historically Important Hoaxes

Orson Welles' Mercury Theater radio broadcast on October 31, 1938, entitled "The War of the Worlds" has been called the "single greatest media hoax of all time." The broadcast was heard on CBS radio stations throughout the United States. Despite repeated announcements within the program that it was a work of fiction, many listeners believed that the world was being attacked by invaders from the planet Mars.

Bathtub Hoax, perpetrated by American journalist and satirist Mencken in the 1920's, was credited even after it was exposed by the author.

Proven Hoaxes

The Patterson-Gimlin film of Bigfoot (admitted)
Bill Stump's stone
Johann Beringer's lying stones
The Cardiff Giant
The Cottingley Fairies
Crop circles
The Donation of Constantine
Emulex hoax
Feejee Mermaid
Furry trout
The Hitler Diaries
Clifford Irving's biography of Howard Hughes
Jackalope
Palisade, Nevada
"Piltdown Man"
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
George Psalmanazar and his "Formosa"
The Report From Iron Mountain
Saving off of Manhattan Island
Mary Toft, rabbit mother
the Turk, a chess-playing automaton

Probable Hoaxes

Possible Hoaxes

The Vinland map
Tasaday tribe in Philippines (controversial)
Philippines historical figure Kanatiaw
The Voynich Manuscript

Practical Joke Hoaxes

Known pranksters

Horace de Vere Cole, British aristocrat
Benjamin Franklin
Brian G. Hughes, US banker
Harry Reichenbach, Hollywood publicist
Joey Skaggs, US media prankster
Edward Askew Sothern, British actor
Hugh Troy, US painter

Hoaxes of Exposure

"Hoaxes of exposure" can be thought of as semi-comical, private sting operations. Their usual purpose is to expose people acting foolishly or credulously, to encourage them to fall for something that the hoaxer hopes to reveal as patent nonsense. See also culture jamming.