Hoaxes are similar to urban tales but their main goal is to deceive someone, to trigger a surge of confusion. No one is immune to their influence - hoaxes can be very tricky and can make a fool out of anybody! Yet some hoaxes just went too far than expected - even for their originators.
The 'Microsoft buys the Roman Catholic Church' hoax is from 1994 and is believed to be the first viral one of its kind. According to the story, a journalist from Associated Press wrote the fake news which spread like crazy via email. The post even went further and falsely quoted Bill Gates and accused him of saying that religion was one growing market which just now started to seem appealing to the company. Even though the article was very clearly a joke, some people believed in ridiculous assumptions such as 'The Bible would be now owned by the tech company' and 'The holy sacraments will be available online'. No wonder Microsoft banned April Fools Jokes.
Something really disgusting happened in 2000 and made us feel disappointed in humanity. The Sydney Paralympic Games were won by a Spanish basketball team, members of which turned out to be imposters in perfect health. The vile players decided to compete against handicapped people and obviously won. After an observant reporter’s disclosure, it was clear that 10 of the 12 players had no problems with their mental capacities and reached high IQ scores despite the "IQ with maximum limit 70" rule.
According to a well-known legend, the famous painter and prankster of his time Hugh Troy decided to fool everyone in The Museum of Modern Art in New York City by exhibiting "Van Gogh's Ear". The fake ear was made out of dried beef and had its own sign with the words: "This is the ear which Vincent Van Gogh cut off and sent to his mistress, a French prostitute, Dec. 24, 1888". With this "social experiment" Troy was to trying to prove his point that people were interested in Gogh’s personal life, not in his artwork. The brilliant prank was widely discussed, but we are pretty sure that this never happened at all.
No, they didn't exist at all. In 1983 a big German magazine organized a press conference to announce they have in their hands Hitler's Diaries which were mysteriously lost once upon a time in a plane crash. It was believed that the authentic diaries would spread the unknown truth about The Third Reich, Adolf’s private life and thoughts. Two weeks were needed for the Society to figure out the lie. As expected this case turned out to be the biggest scandal in German Journalism.
This one is really messed up but stay with us. A family called 911 to report that their 6-year old kid is flying around the neighborhood in a home-made helium balloon. Just a few minutes later the dangerous situation was broadcasted live on almost every TV in the USA and became one of the biggest news stories. Everyone held their breath when the balloon eventually landed and there was no one there. It turned out that the kid was hiding in the attic of his house. After the weird story, there were some speculations that the parents forced their naive kid to lie in order to become famous. The boy even threw up (probably from nervousness) during an interview for CNN and said that they "did it for the show".
In 2011 one particular blogger got really famous. Amina Abdallah Arraf al Omari was a fictional persona created by an American with too much time and creativity in his hand. The hoax was about a blog run by a lesbian speaking about civil rights and LGBT problems in Syria. Very soon there was a fake post from her “cousin” saying that Amina was abducted which terrified the readers.
So, someone exhibited the torso and head of a "mermaid" at Barnum's American Museum, New York in 1842. Most sources say that an American sea captain bought the creature from Japanese sailors. The extraordinary discovery was then exchanged between different holders for different prices. The famous tabloid Mirror wrote an article about the "Fiji mermaid" which raised some disputes between mermaid-believers around the world.
A similar popular story is the one about the famous photo of the Loch Ness Monster. The "Surgeon's photograph" from 1934 is probably the most popular image in the world, used as proof by Loch Ness fanatics all around the world. It is reportedly taken by a London gynecologist and is the first photo of the creature's head and neck. Very soon there were a lot of reports saying that the photo was inauthentic and it pictured a toy.
At the peak of 90's pop culture, people started whispering about "Polybius" - a secret arcade machine created by the US Government. Its purpose was to manipulate people, collect data and send messages by invading the player's mind. Some gamers even started suffering from insomnia and went crazy. The arcade machine was never found or proven to exist.
There are some hoaxes in the gamers' community as well. Some players made up a lie about a special Minecraft character "Herobrine" who is Steve's Evil Twin. There was no way to set apart Herobrine from Steve and if you have the unfortunate luck of meeting him, he kills you for no reason. Imagine the terror for gamers all around the world.
This one is recent and you probably heard of it, because it was on every media source ever (yes, even on National TV). But did you know that it's a hoax? People all around the world started claiming that the “Momo Challenge” made children harm themselves and do other dangerous activities that can end tragically. The urban legend described the fatal game as a conversation starter, targeted to the young audience which came up as a pop-up in videos, a message from an unknown number, etc. A lot of parents and celebrities publicly claimed that they've encountered the mysterious user. The picture of the so-called “user” texting kids was actually a creepy doll created by the Japanese artist, Midori Hiyashi and displayed in a Tokyo museum. The challenge was made up to spread panic, inspired by the Russian "Blue Whale".
The so-called "Dreadnought hoax" is a prank of the poet Horace de Vere Cole which he came up with while studying in Cambridge. In 1910 Cole made the Royal Navy show their flagship "HMS Dreadnought" to a group of his friends who he introduced as "delegation of Abyssinian royals." The prank was unbelievably racist and humiliating as the friend group used black faces and Abyssinian theatrical costumes to fool the navy. The next day Cole gave an interview to the Daily Mail about the hoax.
There's no way you haven't seen the "Alien Autopsy" video. This hoax was one of the most popular stories which everyone knew about and wanted to show, especially in High School. It went viral very quickly and people believed it showed a real autopsy of an actual alien from UFO crash at Roswell in 1947. After all, we still don't know who made this video. The uploaders Santilli and Shoefield (who happen to be movie producers, of course) said they bought the footage from a retired military cameraman in the U.S. To this day they still refuse to tell the cameraman's name. In 2019 some people actually believe this is not a hoax at all, but a top-secret leak.
