Top 10 Famous Hoaxes

Over the years, countless individuals have crafted hoaxes, often for fame or sheer amusement. Among the many deceptions in history, these ten stand out as the most notorious. In some instances, like the Book of Mormon and the Priory of Sion, millions have been—and in some cases still are—deceived. Presented in no specific order, here they are:

1. The Book of Mormon 1830

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints regards the Book of Mormon as a divinely inspired text, holding equal significance to the Bible. Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, asserted that an Angel guided him to a hill near his home, where he discovered golden plates inscribed with the book's contents. Alongside the plates, he found two artifacts known as the Urim and Thummim, described as crystal-like objects resembling spectacles. However, after translating the text, Smith returned the plates to the Angel, leaving no tangible proof of their existence.

The book describes a group of Jews who migrated to and settled in America, where Jesus later visited them. Certain parts of the Book of Mormon are directly lifted from the King James Bible, the most widely used version during Joseph Smith's time. For instance, Mark 16:15-18 is almost identically replicated in Mormon 9:22-24. The book also mirrors the King James Bible's literary and linguistic style. Experts in linguistics have concluded that the text was written by a single individual, contradicting Smith's claim of multiple prophetic authors. Furthermore, the book mentions animals and crops, such as asses, bulls, horses, wheat, and barley, which were not present in America until after Columbus's arrival.

The strongest evidence of Joseph Smith's deception lies in the Book of Abraham. In 1835, Smith used his Urim and Thummim to translate Egyptian scrolls he had access to, as hieroglyphics were undecipherable at the time. He claimed the scrolls contained the Book of Abraham and translated them, which the church later accepted as scripture. The scrolls disappeared, but in 1966, they were rediscovered at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. They were identified as common Egyptian funerary texts. To this day, the Book of Abraham remains a contentious issue for the Mormon faith.

The Cottingley Fairies consist of five photographs captured by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, two young cousins from Cottingley, near Bradford, England. The images show the girls engaging in various activities with what appear to be fairies. Elsie, whose father Arthur Wright was an early electrical engineer, borrowed his quarter plate camera to take pictures in the stream behind their home. When Arthur developed the photos and saw fairies, he dismissed them as fakes. After the second photo, he forbade Elsie from using the camera again. However, her mother, Polly, believed the images were genuine.

In 1919, the story gained public attention when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, published an article in a prominent magazine asserting the photos were real. However, not everyone was convinced, as evidenced by this statement from a prominent doctor at the time:

“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 five decades, the girls avoided the spotlight, and many continued to believe the hoax. In 1981 and 1982, Frances Way (née Griffiths) and Elsie Hill (née Wright) finally admitted that the first four photos were staged. Frances specifically remarked about the first photo: “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 women maintained until their deaths that the fifth photo was authentic.

In 1995, Ray Santilli sparked a global controversy by claiming to possess footage of an “alien autopsy” allegedly filmed by the U.S. military after the 1947 Roswell UFO incident. Santilli unveiled the film to an exclusive audience of media representatives, UFOlogists, and dignitaries at the Museum of London on May 5, 1995. While the broadcast version omitted the actual autopsy, video releases included the full, unedited film along with additional footage of wreckage purported to be from the crashed alien craft. The presentation also featured expert interviews discussing the film's authenticity.

On April 4, 2006, just before the UK release of Alien Autopsy, Ray Santilli and co-producer Gary Shoefield revealed that only a small portion of the film was genuine, describing it as “a few frames.” The rest was a reenactment based on 22 degraded rolls of film Santilli had seen in 1992. The reconstruction was filmed in a Camden Town flat, where artist John Humphreys created two alien dummies over three weeks using materials like sheep brains, chicken entrails, and knuckle joints.

The “Piltdown Man” is a notorious hoax involving skull and jawbone fragments discovered in 1912 in a gravel pit near Piltdown, East Sussex. Initially believed by many experts to be the fossilized remains of an unknown early human species, the specimen was named Eoanthropus dawsoni (“Dawson’s dawn-man”) after its discoverer, Charles Dawson.

The Piltdown hoax stands as one of the most infamous archaeological deceptions in history. Its significance stems from its connection to the study of human evolution and the fact that it remained undetected for over 40 years. In 1953, it was revealed as a forgery, combining an orangutan's jawbone with a modern human skull. The perpetrator of the hoax remains unidentified, with suspects ranging from Dawson to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Arthur Conan Doyle, among others.

From the beginning, some scientists doubted the authenticity of the Piltdown discovery. For instance, G.S. Miller remarked in 1915 that “deliberate malice could hardly have been more effective than the natural processes of deposition in fragmenting the fossils, leaving their reconstruction open to subjective interpretation.” In the years leading up to its exposure as a fraud in 1953, the scientific community increasingly viewed Piltdown as an anomaly that contradicted the established trajectory of human evolution, as evidenced by fossils discovered in other regions.

The Feejee Mermaid was displayed as a mummified creature, allegedly a hybrid of mammal and fish, resembling a distorted version of traditional mermaid tales. Initially popularized by the renowned showman P.T. Barnum, the exhibit was later replicated in various attractions, including those of Robert Ripley. The original artifact toured the United States but was lost in the 1860s when Barnum’s museum burned down. Today, the exhibit is part of Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, stored in the museum’s attic.

The Fiji mermaid was acquired by Barnum through Moses Kimball, his Boston associate, who brought it to him in the spring of 1842. On June 18, the two signed an agreement to showcase this “curiosity believed to be a mermaid.” Kimball retained ownership, while Barnum leased it for $12.50 weekly. Barnum named the artifact “The Feejee Mermaid.”

In truth, the mermaid was a clever fabrication, crafted by an Indonesian artisan using papier-mâché and exotic fish parts, or a fish tail combined with a baby orangutan’s torso and a monkey’s head, meticulously stitched together.

The Priory of Sion has been portrayed as everything from a powerful secret society shaping Western history to a modern Rosicrucian-like group. However, it was ultimately revealed to be a fabrication devised in 1956 by Pierre Plantard, a Frenchman with aspirations to the throne. Historians, academics, and institutions have dismissed the evidence supporting its existence as inauthentic and unconvincing. It was later uncovered that Plantard and his associates forged and strategically placed this evidence across France.

From 1961 to 1984, Plantard fabricated an elaborate history for the Priory of Sion, asserting it originated from the Abbey of Sion, a monastic order established during the First Crusade in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and later absorbed by the Jesuits in 1617. Plantard envisioned the Priory as a secretive, monarchist organization that would advance his claim to the French throne and revive chivalric ideals.

Despite readily available evidence debunking its legitimacy, the Priory of Sion regained attention through Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code. Brown falsely claimed the book was based on factual research, further perpetuating the myth.

The Turk was a fraudulent chess-playing machine from the late 18th century, marketed as an automaton but later exposed as a hoax. It debuted in 1770 at Schönbrunn Palace, where its creator, Kempelen, showcased the machine to the court. Before each demonstration, Kempelen opened the cabinet’s doors and drawers, inviting the audience to inspect the interior. Once satisfied, he announced the machine was ready to face a challenger.

Kempelen explained that the Turk would use the white pieces and make the first move. During the game, the Turk rested its left arm on a cushion. It nodded twice to signal a threat to the opponent’s queen and three times when placing the king in check. If an illegal move was made, the Turk shook its head, corrected the move, and proceeded, forcing the opponent to forfeit their turn. Witnesses noted the machine played aggressively, often winning within thirty minutes.

In reality, the Turk was an elaborate illusion housing a hidden human chess master who controlled its movements. With a skilled operator, the machine triumphed in most matches. It toured Europe and the Americas for over 80 years, defeating notable figures like Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin, before being destroyed in a fire in 1854.

One of the most famous images of Nessie, known as the ‘Surgeon’s Photograph,’ is often cited as compelling evidence of the monster’s existence, though its authenticity was questioned from the start. The photo was exposed as a hoax in the 1990s. The photographer, Robert Kenneth Wilson, a gynecologist, never explicitly claimed it depicted the monster, only stating he captured “something in the water.” The image is frequently cropped to exaggerate the creature’s size, while the original uncropped version shows the loch’s far end with the object in the center.

A year before the hoax was uncovered, Discovery Communications’ documentary Loch Ness Discovered analyzed the uncropped photo and identified a white object present in every version, suggesting it was part of the negative. The narrator noted, “It appears to be the source of ripples, as if towed by something, though science cannot rule out it being a flaw on the negative.” Further analysis revealed the object was small, measuring only two to three feet in length.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a fabricated text claiming to outline a Jewish and Masonic conspiracy for global domination. It stands as one of the most infamous literary forgeries, widely debated and discredited. Multiple independent investigations have labeled it as either plagiarized or entirely fraudulent. The document is often regarded as the foundation of modern conspiracy literature, presented as a guide for new members of the “elders,” detailing plans to control media and finance, and to replace existing social structures with systems of mass manipulation.

The use of the Protocols as antisemitic propaganda declined significantly after the Nazis' defeat in World War II. However, it continues to be cited and republished by certain antisemitic groups, particularly in the Middle East, as purported evidence of a Jewish conspiracy. Much of the text appears to be plagiarized from Maurice Joly’s 1864 satire, Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu, which critiques Napoleon III’s political ambitions using Machiavelli as a fictional representation of Napoleon’s schemes.

Interestingly, many of the goals outlined in the Protocols have seemingly come to pass. Examples include the adoption of universal suffrage, the widespread acceptance of pornography, the proliferation of Darwinism, Socialism, and Materialism.

The Cardiff Giant, one of America’s most notorious hoaxes, was a 10-foot-tall (3m) “petrified man” discovered on October 16, 1869, by workers digging a well on William C. “Stub” Newell’s property in Cardiff, New York. Both the original and a replica created by P.T. Barnum remain on display. The Giant was the brainchild of George Hull, a New York tobacconist and atheist, who conceived the idea after a debate with a fundamentalist preacher, Mr. Turk, about a biblical passage in Genesis referencing giants who once roamed the earth.

Hull commissioned workers to carve a 10-foot-long, 4.5-inch block of gypsum in Fort Dodge, Iowa, claiming it was for an Abraham Lincoln monument in New York. He transported the block to Chicago, where a German stonecutter sculpted it into a human figure under a vow of secrecy. To age the statue, Hull applied stains and acids, and used steel knitting needles to create pores on its surface. After burying the giant for a year, Newell hired Gideon Emmons and Henry Nichols to dig a well, where they “discovered” the Giant. One of them reportedly exclaimed, “I declare, some old Indian has been buried here!”

The giant attracted massive crowds, prompting P.T. Barnum to offer $60,000 for a three-month lease (he later claimed in his memoirs he wanted to buy it). When the owners refused, Barnum secretly created a wax mold of the giant and produced a plaster replica. He displayed his version in New York, insisting it was the genuine article and labeling the Cardiff Giant a fraud. On February 2, 1870, both giants were exposed as fakes in court. The judge ruled that Barnum could not be sued for denouncing a fake as a fake.