What have been the most successful hoaxes in history?

Question

What have been the most successful hoaxes in history?

Answer 1

Justin Bieber.

Answer 2

My suggestion would be "The Martians are Landing" as perpetrated by Orson Wells in his radio broadcast which bought a gullible American Public to a state of abject fear.

Answer 3

My personal favorite was the Cottingley fairies. I can't believe that 2 people fooled the entire world for years.

Answer 4

The Surgeon's Photograph.



One of the most iconic, if not the most iconic, images of Nessie, which many consider to be good evidence of the monster. Doubts about its authenticity were expressed from the very beginning, but it was not until the 1990s that the image was revealed as a hoax.



Edit: Oh my... you've opened the floor to conspiracy lunatics.

Answer 5

Milli Vanilli

Answer 6

When Hitler told Neville Chamberlain that the Nazis would not go to war if they could just have a little piece of Czechoslovakia.

Answer 7

The Loch Ness monster.

Answer 8

The hoax about Saddam Hussein being directly linked to 9/11.

Answer 9

I'm still laughing at the person who put Milli Vanilli - Classic!



Crop circles - SO simplistic, yet they fooled the world for so long.



Also wasnt there a radio station (pre-TV days) - Where they played a fake news real of an alien invasion??

It was meant to be a bit of fun for listeners to enjoy.

But people tuned in, and thought it was real.

It caused nation wide panic in the USA.



Not sure if it counts as an 'official' hoax, because they never meant for it to be taken seriously.

Nevertheless - It was believed to be authentic for a while.



Note:

To those that have been answering God/Jesus...

More people believe in gods/religion on this planet, than not.

Yet only christianity seems to have taken a hit?

Curious.



I cannot understand why do people love to use a fun question, to write an answer purely to offend and insult others?

I do not necessarily believe either way.

But surely something is not a hoax until it is proven to be fake/unreal.



No one has yet proven there is no god/s - so still only an opinion - not a hoax :)

Answer 10

Balloon Boy. It worked for a while at least.

Answer 11

Imaginary/mystery creatures like Nessie and Bigfoot have been some of the bigger ones that are the most heard about. But that's only because people are gullible and far too interested in a big smelly ape. lol No offense intended, most of that stuff is bull, but it'd be silly to think a big ape is so impossible...which is why so many fall for it. The possible ones are the worst. lol



Oh, and alien crafts! =p The videos are -everywhere- and people believe them. Of course I don't believe in little green men, but I also don't think this is he only planet in the HUGE universe with life, let alone intelligent life-forms. But most videos are faked. Cropcircles, UFO's, strange lights and abduction stories.



And lets not forget Jesus appearing on a tortilla...or was it toast? That's just silly. lol Not trying to smack religion, that is impossible to prove or disprove and so pointless to sleight others for...but tortilla/toast face? lol



Oh, and the Mayan Calendar was a circle, I dunno who thought it'd be cool to tell people it was going to END. LOL And Y2K as well. Some are pretty out there and masses believe them. One of these times they'll be right though. I will say this about Y2K though...no matter where we went in town, all the isles with bottled water were completely empty. =(



And the boy in the balloon thing that got everyone all in an uproar.

Answer 12

After browsing through the answers already submitted to this question, my list is:



Early 1900s: Pitdown Man (1912), Cottingley Fairies (1917) or "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast (1938).

Mid 1900s: Lockness Monster (1933), Big Foot (1958), or the Amityville Horror (1978).

Late 1900s: Crop circles (1990s) or Cold Fusion (1988).

2000s: The 9/11 conspiracy "evidence" and other hoaxes proliferated over the internet.



Each of these is notable for being outrageous in terms of contemporary scientific thinking, receiving worldwide media attention, and were either admitted to be false (as with the Cottingley Fairies) or have much more reasonable explanations from subject matter experts (Big Foot and the "9/11 Conspiracy").



Note, that pseudoscience is not the same as hoaxing. Thus, Freudian psychoanalysis, climate change science, eugenics, and etc. are not hoaxes. Pseudosciences are based on honest but nevertheless misguided attempts to produce explications of empirical observations. Hoaxes, on the other hand, seek to obfuscate cause and effect. However, if a scientist knowingly makes a false claim (like in the case of Cold Fusion), that constitutes a hoax.

Answer 13

There have been many, many hoaxes perpetrated upon the public, some successful for awhile - others not. So when I read/hear of something that seems outlandish, I wait, gather facts and form an opinion, which is sometimes wrong. Then I do admit I was wrong. On a personal level, I was duped by a female for a little over two years. The way she wrote and the pictures sent to me had me convinced in her statements. The the bubble burst. Found out that the pictures supposedly of her were of a porn star, not her. Upon questioning, I finally found out who she was and actually got a picture of her. Getting on an Instant Message video cam, I did ascertain the last picture was of her and what she looked like. Further questions were ignored by her or she would not answer directly. Then I found out she was involved in some sort of credit card scam (no, not mine as I don't have/use any) and that was the end of our relationship. No more communications since Sept 2012.

Answer 14

Anyone who says crop circles are a hoax clearly has some research to do. Yes, there have been crop circle hoaxes in the past, an example of this is when National Geographic paid "team satan" to create numerous fake crop circles. What no heard about is that "team satan" while creating the fakes actually spotted flying objects descending from the night sky and making a crop circle in a neighboring field. Not all of these anomalies have been faked.



I would say the greatest hoax is the protocol of the elders of zion being a fake. If it was faked then why is it that the exact same things written in that book are happening today all around us?



I would also say that any story involving weather balloons and flying saucers are a hoax.

Answer 15

some successful for awhile - others not. So when I read/hear of something that seems outlandish, I wait, gather facts and form an opinion, which is sometimes wrong. Then I do admit I was wrong. On a personal level, I was duped by a female for a little over two years. The way she wrote and the pictures sent to me had me convinced in her statements. The the bubble burst. Found out that the pictures supposedly of her were of a porn star, not her. Upon questioning, I finally found out who she was and actually got a picture of her. Getting on an Instant Message video cam, I did ascertain the last picture was of her and what she looked like. Further questions were ignored by her or she would not answer directly. Then I found out she was involved in some sort of credit card scam (no, not mine as I don't have/use any) and that was the end of our relationship. No more communications since Sept 2012.

Answer 16

The balloon boy, the hoax lasted for at least a week about a boy stuck in a balloon.

It caused massive panic througout the country, the news was even heard in major news station like ABC, CNN, WNBC, and many other. It was once so bad that they shut power off a city for an entire day because the balloon was flying so close near the electric cables. The balloon caused police everywhere to be causious incase they saw a silver balloon. I even heard rumors of that the air force even got involved.

But when the balloon landed, the hoax was discovered, and once they found out there were no boy in the balloon, the guy who created the hoax got sued for a lot of money.

Answer 17

The war of the worlds radio drama in 1938!



The War of the Worlds is an episode of the American radio drama anthology series The Mercury Theatre on the Air. It was performed as a Halloween episode of the series on October 30, 1938, and aired over the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network. Directed and narrated by actor and future filmmaker Orson Welles, the episode was an adaptation of H. G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds (1898).



The first two thirds of the 60-minute broadcast were presented as a series of simulated news bulletins, which suggested to many listeners that an actual alien invasion by Martians was currently in progress. Compounding the issue was the fact that, the Mercury Theatre on the Air was a sustaining show (it ran without commercial breaks), adding to the program's realism.

Answer 18

I remember watching a news feature about a spaghetti tree, in the early 1970s. I was young at the time and nearly believed it. But the hoax was originally broadcast in 1957 on April Fool's Day, not surprisingly.



Another hoax is a tree octopus.



There was a hoax a few years ago about someone who apparently drowned in a canooing accident, but was then sighted and charged with insurance fraud. It was in the news but I can't remember the exact details of it but it involved the couple John and Anne Darwin.



Another hoax has been the sighting of skulls on the surface of Mars. Although there are anomalies on the surface of Mars, as well as the Moon, they are usually natural features that resemble faces, beings, pyramids and monoliths. But then, who knows what they are or were?



But for a hoax to be successful it has to never be found out.

Answer 19

The spaghetti tree hoax is a famous 3-minute hoax report broadcast on April Fools' Day 1957 by the BBC current affairs programme Panorama. It told a tale of a family in southern Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from the fictitious spaghetti tree, broadcast at a time when this Italian dish was not widely eaten in the UK and some Britons were unaware that spaghetti is a pasta made from wheat flour and water.

Answer 20

Probably the best hoax ever was General Eisenhower's decision to set up a fake landing for D-Day, miles from the actual landing at Omaha Beach. The fake landing involved huge numbers of fake troops, fake boats and fake aircraft, all done by building things that looked like structures and equipment but were nothing but plywood and paper and plaster shaped like tanks, boats, aircraft and sundry equipment. As a result, Hitler had to keep a large number of divisions in the area where the Germans thought that the invasion was coming from, and thus thousands of troops were kept out of the real battle on a wild goose chase.

Answer 21

The most famous was probably Orson Welles radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds" which sent the whole listening world into a panic wherein even governments reacted, sent out troops, etc.



The longest hoax of the modern era is "Paul is a dead man", the hoax the Beatles played on the world that Paul McCartney was dead which many fans bought into and still continues to this day.



The others would be Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, fairies, elves, gnomes and the anthropomorphic nature of god.

Answer 22

The Cottingley Fairies

Piltdown Man

Protocols of the Elders of Zion (many people still believe it is real)

Alien autopsy (many people still believe this is real)

Jack the Ripper diary (many still believe it is real)

Hitlers diaries (a few still believe those to be rea)

War of the Worlds (people died when that was airing!)

The Tasaday Clan

Archie Belaney (aka Grey Owl) who was British and not native American/Canadian Indian)

New Jersey UFO

Howard Hughes will

Milli Vanilli

The Amityville Horror (some people still believe it really happened)

Professional wrestling being real is a huge hoax...its not real



I am not sure I have ever fallen for a real hoax but I am sure I could be.

Answer 23

There was a hoax a few years ago about someone who apparently drowned in a canooing accident, but was then sighted and charged with insurance fraud. It was in the news but I can't remember the exact details of it but it involved the couple John and Anne Darwin.



Another hoax has been the sighting of skulls on the surface of Mars. Although there are anomalies on the surface of Mars, as well as the Moon, they are usually natural features that resemble faces, beings, pyramids and monoliths. But then, who knows what they are or were?

Answer 24

The absolute biggest, most successful hoax in history was [perpetrated 1400 years ago and still affects more than billion people to this day - that was Muhammad convincing people that he was the mouthpiece of God, and forming a religion that was about himself, for himself, by himself. Islam is by far the biggest hoax and the biggest cult in history.

Answer 25

This wasn't a hoax. It was a guy who never even met the person. That is NOT a relationship. A relationship takes INTIMACY. You cannot have INTIMACY unless you meet someone in person. Touching their arm, holding hands, etc. THAT is intimacy. (In addition to the obvious physical way that adults show intimacy...) There was no intimacy, and no relationship here. Therefore no hoax. It was a dumb move on his part to become so attached, but not a hoax.



(Frankly, I'm not even buying that either, that he was so attached-- talking to a girl everynight on the phone and becoming as close as he said he was, and NOT traveling to meet her??? Yeah, something's not right with that.... I dont care how "Tim Tebow"-like he is.... he is a man, and men have "needs" that need to be met... so yeah, I'm not buying that. At all.)

Answer 26

WWE's current PG product

Doomsday predictions/End of the World rumors

Private/Deleted YouTube Videos

The Recession

High Gas Prices over $3.25-3.50

The McMahons[Linda, Vincent K., Shane and Stephanie]

Sports Lockouts(MLB, NHL, NFL, NBA, WNBA, NASCAR and Arena Football)

FTM Transexuals

Maury Show features DNA Test Results and Lie Detector Test results

Answer 27

Cleveland 01/18/13



One would probably be: Well's broadcast about the Alien invasion,.? Another; Govenor Dewey's

winning the Presidential election,.!? The Kidnapping of young Charles A. Lindbergh III,.?!!



Eliasis Yahwehei ( The Main Man )

Answer 28

I'm not going to write here my answer to the question, because this is a comment in reaction to some of the other comments I've seen here:

I feel that some (and only SOME, because a few answers here were insightful and thought through, or just didn't intend to hurt anyone) people answer these questions, not to learn anything or to help others fulfill their curiosity (which I believe is part of the essence of Yahoo Answers), but just to express anger and hatred towards people with different opinions to their own.

I personally don't believe in fairy colonies living in forests, or in ugly aliens only wanting to kill us all, or in many other different things and ideas- but it doesn't mean they can't be true(!).

Just because I think a certain way doesn't mean other opinions shouldn't be respected or listened to.

I accept the fact that others think differently than I do, and I try to keep my mind open at least a little, even if I don't always succeed to. It's called Pluralism (which is a very fundamental aspect of democracy). Just so some (again, SOME) of you know, the "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" isn't just about whether someone agrees with your opinion or not, sometimes it's about the WAY you answered the question. I wish this site could be about discussions, and not about commenting random slogans or about crushing world views different to our own.

I don't expect much to come out of this comment, but I just wanted this to be said.

Live and learn! (=

Answer 29

Internet trolling in 1999.



"As reported on April 8, 1999, investors became victims of trolling via an online financial discussion regarding PairGain, a telephone equipment company based in California. Trolls operating in the stock’s Yahoo Finance chat room posted a fabricated Bloomberg News article stating that an Israeli telecom company could potentially acquire PairGain. As a result, PairGain’s stock jumped by 31%. However, the stock promptly crashed after the reports were identified as false."

Answer 30

Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, Pearl of Great Price

To Mormons reading: I'M SO SORRY!. :-(

(but it's sadly true)



The Urantia Book, Oahspe, A Course in Miracles, and

any other popular "channeled text" in this modern age

(1700 to NOW).



I'm not so duped by these hoaxes,

but I'm still fascinated with them.

Answer 31

I want to say Lance Armstrong but Manti Te'o hoax took his place by the way Lennay Kekua is really Diane O'meara and she said she had nothing to do with Manti Te'o hoax, need more info, photos of O'Meara check her out here http://slimcelebrity.com/celebrity-athletes/diane-omeara-is-the-face-in-the-lennay-kekua-manti-teo-dead-gf-scam-photos/.

Answer 32

Former British Prime Minister John Major built up this image of utter boringness. A grey man in a grey suit in a grey household and incapable of anything more interesting than watching cricket and counting the peas on his plate.



The satirists on the Spitting Image portrayed him as a monochrome bore with a catchphrase "peas are nice, dear" which his puppet would say in a flat voice over a silent dinner table. To spice up the caricature, they dreamt up the most preposterously absurd scenario that they could imagine - that he was having a secret affair with one of his cabinet ministers, and they would make passionate love over the cabinet table. It was so ridiculous that nobody could ever have imagined John Major would ever be capable of such a thing, not even the tabloid journalists, who are always on the lookout for scandal, would have thought that one up, except perhaps as an April Fool. The Spitting Image puppet of Virginia Bottomley was duly requisitioned to be John Major's love interest.



Years after John Major was voted out of office, and had retired to watch cricket, it turned out to be true - the only thing Spitting Image got wrong was that it was Edwina Currie, not Virginia Bottomley, and it was Margaret Thatcher's cabinet table, not John Major's. Edwina Currie spilled the beans years earlier with some fairly steamy novels, but nobody linked them to John Major.

Answer 33

The great spaghetti tree harvest hoax by the BBC in the 1950s (a bumper crop; people asked how they could obtain spaghetti trees for their gardens).



The clean-the-dust from the telephones hoax in the 1930s (people were asked to leave their telephones off the receiver so the phone company could blow the dust off the lines).



A similar internet hoax in the 1990s, asking computer owners to leave their computers on so they could be cleaned.



The Sidd Finch hoax in Sports Illustrated in the 1980s, which said a 160 mph fastballer, trained by lamas in Tibet, was just hired for the Yankees. http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/Sidd_Finch/

Answer 34

21 December 2012 - we got trolled big time. Be it Nostradamus or Mayan calendar. I was hoping at least a fly would fly backwards that day.. disappointed.



And well, on another note, there's the fact that Jesus wasn't actually born on the 25th December (Yes, I can see those thumb downs coming!). We're still yearly getting trolled by that one. But it's a fun festival - gift sharing, fun family times, great moments. I can't complain.



Lance Armstrong won the 'tour de france' 7 years in a row!! That's definitely the most recent/amazing one.



Lastly, Aliens!! Go figure!

Answer 35

The 'Hitler Diaries' of 1983



and



The 9/11 attack of 2001 (many of the 'plane hijackers' are still alive)



The Biggest hoax of all is that American politics is democratic. It's not. I has always been dominated by corporate interests, the interests of the Federal Reserve and above all the bain of the world - The Rothchild family dynasty.

Answer 36

A more recent hoax that really sticks out is the one perpetuated by two LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS when they had claimed to have a freezer containing the remains of a big foot. They put the cooler up for bid and (I believe) a radio station payed them thousands of dollars for it. What the buyers had found frozen in the ice was a rubber mask and various animal parts. This auction had gone on for weeks before it was thawed out and found out... I was certainly watching to see what they found!

Answer 37

The Y2K bug ,

So the computers could recognize the year "2000"

I remember the panic in 1999 ,people thought it was the start of the end of the world .



After all, the United States alone had spent $100 billion on Y2K fixes.

Answer 38

l dont favour any hoaxes .But the ones l hate the most are

fools making a mint out of pretending to heal people in the

name of religion which act is itself a sacrilage an insult to God.

They force people to applaud an imaginary miracle and finish

up by collecting "sawing a seed" cash from the victims.

lf you tried this in South Arabia you could be lynched.Peter Pop off hinn and morris cerulo to name but a few culpritsl.

Answer 39

Lance Armstrong, his Tour de France titles and his DopeStrong, er, LiveStrong NGO.

David Stern's claims that the 2002 West Finals Game 6 had fair officiating.

The Chicago Cubs' billy goat curse.

The Boston Red Sox's 1918/Babe Ruth curse.

The New York Rangers' 1940 curse.

The Robert Kenneth Wilson Loch Ness monster photo.

Ray Lewis' innocence in the Jacinth Baker/Richard Lollar murder case.

OJ Simpson's innocence in the Nicole Brown Simpson/Ronald Goldman murder case.

The book "Holy Blood Holy Grail."

The Priory of Sion.

The "Paul McCartney is dead" urban legend.

The "Jim Morrison is still alive" urban legend.

The "Elvis Presley is still alive" urban legend.

East Germany's sports success.

Lady Gaga and Tom Cruise.

Scientology.

The New Orleans Saints and bounties on opposing players.

Stonehenge - it's just a bunch of rocks put together in a completely meaningless pattern to confuse the hell out of scientists for years.

The Twilight series of books and movies.

Answer 40

The James Randi "Carlos Hoax" comes to my mind.



"Carlos" was the name of a 2,000-year-old spirit allegedly channeled by José Alvarez when he toured Australia in 1988. Channeling was all the rage in Australia and an Australian television program contacted James Randi about finding someone who might show Australians that channeling was something doubtful. Randi approached Alvarez, a performance artist and friend who had long toyed with the idea of creating such a character. The rest, as they say, is history.



Randi explains how the hoax was set in the links.

Answer 41

Gregor McGregor once created a guidebook to a fictional island, sold land to people in France (if memory serves) and was even so kind as to exchange their money for the fictional currency he created. His guidebook was over 100 pages long and very detailed. It even talked about how little disease existed and how fertile the land was in this new land.



After he sold the land and tickets he sent over 100 people overseas and dropped them off at a failed colony and sailed away. Over half of them died before making it back months and months later. By then he had made off with (in today's dollars) several hundred million in profit.

Answer 42

War of the Worlds - 1938 Alien Invasion Radio Drama.

Answer 43

The MOST SUCCESSFUL HOAX of ALL TIMES is the claim that Word Trade Center (WTC) Building 7 was brought down by "fires". This HOAX also includes the claims that the WTC Twin Towers were brought down by the airplanes & subsequent fires





These Architects & Engineers have most of the evidence. http://www.ae911truth.org/





Global Warming is up there also.



The Martians Invading Earth War on radio in the early part of the last century. That was a good one.

Answer 44

The Hitler Diaries in 1983, the serialisation rights bought by Robert Maxwell for £3m, before they were found to be genuine.



Eventually he had them tested for authenticity.



The paper was of the appropriate age. However the pens used to write them with,were ballpoints and not in common use in Germany until the 1950's and 1960's.



Ironically, Lazlo Biro escaped from Nazi Europe in 1941.

Answer 45

I would say the greatest hoax is the protocol of the elders of zion being a fake. If it was faked then why is it that the exact same things written in that book are happening today all around us?

Answer 46

How about the "war of the worlds"?



A man named Orson Wells was doing a fake radio news bulletin about Martians invading the planet, and a whole ton of people took it seriously and panicked. Mass hysteria and a couple evacuations. He had to do a follow up program telling everyone it was just a drama he'd written.

Answer 47

The Bible (or Toran) is the most successful hoax in history. It was created to subjugate people into submission and fear. It worked and still does to this day. It has shaped the world into a hateful one. Customs, traditions, family, war, etc. all founded on and shaped by these lies.



Jesus never existed. He's another version of Horace, Hercules, Zeus, etc. all born on December 25.



Anyone who speaks out against them is labeled as the devil (Satan). Thus, "Satan" is the good guy. Symbolizing a person rebelling against the Order.



Religion is the biggest hoax of all time.

Answer 48

There were a couple of girls in 1917 who claimed to have seen fairies and took photos of them. They became known as the Cottingley Fairies. I remember a movie made about it in maybe the 80's. They actually had experts fooled for years. Finally admitted to the hoax in the 1980's, though out of the five pictures, one of the girls continued to claim that the last one was real.

Answer 49

The War of the Worlds radio broadcast of 1938, by famed actor and filmmaker Orson Welles, based on a novel of the same name by HG Wells. It was presented as noise bulletins on an alien invasion at the start of the broadcast, and caused mass panic because people thought it was real.

Answer 50

Hoaxes, coaxes, bauxite, and boxkites with polka oh's, peridots, and ford cardboard dashes hyphen-delta-beta-carotein--ocuous colon gee.



The U.S. won its first battle as a nation in the Revolutionary War when forces of Col. Ethan Allen and Gen. Benedict Arnold included a young lady of brave lasciviousness who single-handedly....or maybe was two-hands...seduced the British commander at Fort Ticonderoga, thereby leaving British regulars, who had no spirit to take combat up without order against those of like-oreientation, to surrender their arms with not a single shot fired by anyone....well maybe the commander...and Mantti Te'o....maybe she was in Essex via phone-eye appeal.

Answer 51

Big Foot = amature filmmakers make film of human in "Big Foot" cosume.

Loch Ness Monster -- Disgruntled photographer crafts the hoax of the Lock Ness Monster; Great tourist bucks; Loch Ness' food supply can't support a creature that size

The Roswell, NM "UFO" incident -- Great tourist bucks.

Answer 52

There were some pictures taken on Apollo 11 mission that suggest it was a hoax. If this is true. This will be the greatest hoax in a century because it fooled everyone. (Except for those conspiracy theorist)

Answer 53

The Peralta Grant in the Southwestern United States. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peralta_land_grant

Answer 54

When Orson Wells On Sunday, October 30, 1938, presented War of the Worlds to millions of radio listeners who were shocked when radio news alerts announced the arrival of Martians

Answer 55

Christianity

Answer 56

The paper was of the appropriate age. However the pens used to write them with,were ballpoints and not in common use in Germany until the 1950's and 1960's.

Answer 57

The flying Spaghetti Monster.

Answer 58

One that comes to mind is when H.G. Wells went on radio and announced that aliens from outer space were here. He was promoting The War of the Worlds that he had just written but many people who heard his broadcast took him seriously. Some moved away from their homes. I think that was in the 50`s before television.

Answer 59

I think the original referendum question on joining Europe should have been worded "Are you prepared to let Europe take over the running of this country?". If it had, I would have voted No, and so would many other people I know. I think the whole country was duped on that one.

Answer 60

Never been duped.

However, some of the biggest recent ones were:



Harold Camping's failed predictions (I consider it a hoax).

2012 doomsday.

Any Alien sighting.

#cutforbieber craze.

Too many really.

Also, the Mechanical Turk and the Rabbit man.

Answer 61

The events of September 11, 2001 were staged by 19 Saudi national terrorists whom 8 of which turned up very much alive a year later, directed by a man living in a cave in Afghanistan with a cell phone and a laptop computer, who had the whole entire North American Defence stand down while he directed 3 men who couldn't fly a single engine Cessna aircraft crash passenger aircraft into icons of American wealth.

Years later, he was sorta killed in a botched raid and with no evidence dumped into the ocean while the team that made this hit so newsworthy were all killed in a tragic accident.Not bad for a man who was photographed getting younger and younger over the interim 11 years while known to have died years earlier from renal failure.

Oh wait, this is a conspiracy fact.Strange how hoax and conspiracy have so much in common in some instances.

Answer 62

Lance Armstrong

Answer 63

the run up to the d day landings is a well known hoax. they deliberately 'build' invasion parties with blowup tanks etc to make the germans think the invasion was coming from a completely different part of the english channel.

Answer 64

12-21-2012

Answer 65

It was I think two years back. The biggest hoax that went viral online was getting a discount or free burger from In and Out Burger's nationwide.

Answer 66

The Chicago Bears hahahaha

Answer 67

The Millennium Bug.

Answer 68

Travis Walton

Answer 69

Bruce Jenner

Answer 70

The 911 Commission takes the prize, followed closely by the Warren Commission as runner-up. Future generations will most definitely be laughing at us.

Answer 71

President Cheney's Iraqi WMD hoax.

Answer 72

Orwell's War of the Worlds was, for its day, a huge hoax that had many people thinking the world was being invaded by aliens.

Answer 73

Also wasnt there a radio station (pre-TV days) - Where they played a fake news real of an alien invasion??

It was meant to be a bit of fun for listeners to enjoy.

But people tuned in, and thought it was real.

It caused nation wide panic in the USA.

Answer 74

If I or anyone else speculate that something is a hoax, then its success is already weakened compared to a hoax that no-one's ever even suggested is such. So this question is by definition unanswerable.

Answer 75

* The Mayan Calenders prediction of the world ending in 2012.

* Sightings of the Lochness Monster.

* Lance Armstrong making the world believe he was a great cyclist athlete , when in fact drugs were the reason he was winning most of the time.

Answer 76

Kony 2012, and here in my country, Philippines. The Aman Futures group who disguised as a fake insurance company and they scammed up to 1.5 M Pesos.

Answer 77

The Nat Tate art hoax.

Answer 78

I remember an april fools joke the BBC did in 1957 when I was nine years old - about bringing in the spaghetti harvest showing people on ladders picking spaghetti out of the trees http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXmaS1ZzpA8&feature=player_embedded#!

Answer 79

Religion

Answer 80

I think that "1938 Radio Hoax" thing, cause I heard The "radio news" said, Aliens from Mars coming to attack Earth, and start killing ppl by New York city.. and it scared nearly half of the American to death, cause most of them thought it was really true, True Story~

Answer 81

1. Obama's presidency



2. The Big Bang Theory/Creationism. It's got to be one or the other. Each say the other is false. Creationism has no scientific proof. The Big Bang Theory has threaded proof by it's supporting scientists wanting to try and butter it up. Either way, Billions believe each.



3. The Lochness Monster



4. 9/11 and Holocaust MYTHS THAT PEOPLE MAKE UP TO SAY IN THEIR MIND THAT IT NEVER HAPPENED. THEY DID HAPPEN FOLKS.

--------------------------------------------

Answer 82

Sandy Hook is shaping up to have been one of the most successful hoaxes in history. Except for the fact that serious, credentialed investigators are now becoming involved. Will they get away with it? Stay tuned...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK8tLX6VQp4

Answer 83

Orson Welles "War of The Worlds" radio broadcast. People freaked the F*$# out!

Answer 84

Orson Welles-War of the Worlds

Answer 85

9-11

Answer 86

Lock Nessa monster

New Mexico Alien crash

Bigfoot

Answer 87

Hurricane Katrina

Answer 88

The Priory of Sion by Pierre Plantard

Answer 89

The Mayan Apocolpse (2012)

Answer 90

Evolution

Answer 91

The pseudo-scientific books of the early 20th century that detailed a fake Jewish conspiracy.

Hitler used these 'Hoaxes' to persuade a nation to persecute a raceò

Answer 92

The wwe I mean everybody thought it was real and when they came out said they were lying its all fake people still watched and went to shows to this day buying clothes and video games the wwe superstars even perform in movies

Answer 93

Alien abductions.



I remember this story of two men in England around the 1800s if I remember correctly claiming to be abducted by aliens.

Answer 94

Daft question.



The most succesful hoaxes are those that have never been found out. Just like the perfect murder.



So by definition... no one knows.

Answer 95

Justin Bieber

Answer 96

Orson Wells "War of Worlds" 1939 broadcast in October, which made thousands of Americans believe they were being invaded by aliens from mars.

Some were even about to commit suicide to escape the alien invaders.



Not many hoaxes are good.

Answer 97

The Book of Mormon and The Book of Abraham

Duane Gish's Creationist debate circuit

Answer 98

NASA "space missions" and supposedly putting man made objects "into space" would be among the most successful hoaxes in history.

Answer 99

I would go with these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGMnVGQet1A

"10 Infamous Hoaxes" by alltime10s on YouTube.

Answer 100

1 direction

Answer 101

To keep it within context. How about the Duke Lacrosse team, say about 2006? The media really learned it's lessons well! :thumsdown: idiots.

Answer 102

two by the same group of companies: the ProFlowers (Shari's Berrys, Red Envelope, Cherry Moon Farms) Easy Saver Scam and their chocolate covered strawberries that they believe the customers "expect" they are not made with chocolate

Answer 103

If it was a truly successful hoax, would we know about it?

Answer 104

Al Gores "Global Warming" hoax. He just made off with 500 million from it.

I was never duped by it though.

Answer 105

Loch Ness – the Surgeon’s Photo

Answer 106

Evolution.

There's so many flaws and broken theories behind that bunch of garbage it's ridiculous and yet it's touted by millions as absolute fact and even taught in our schools as such.

Answer 107

Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus!!!!!

Answer 108

One Direction

Answer 109

I think the most successful hoax of this century has to be Invisible Children's "KONY 2012."

Answer 110

All religions,believing there is a 'God'.



The 'Special relationship' between Britain and the USA.

America only helped us in 2 World Wars,because we had to cede territory & pay an extortionate amount of money.

Answer 111

9/11

Answer 112

That any of Barack Obama's campaign promises would be fufilled.

Barack Obama's "birth certificate".

That Obama is a citizen of the United States legally.

Answer 113

The Cottingley Fairies. Although there were many skeptics they could not prove the photos fake until the girl, many years later, revealed it was a hoax and explained how she and her sister did it.





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottingley_Fairies

Answer 114

the so-called “Donation of Constantine.” Forgotten today, except by historians of law and religion, the Donation played an important role in justifying papal assertions of temporal power in the Middle Ages.



The Donation was a purportedly an imperial decree, signed by the Emperor Constantine, granting the entirety of the Western Roman Empire to Pope Sylvester I and his successors. Constantine supposedly made this gift in gratitude for Sylvester’s actions in miraculously curing him of leprosy and baptizing him in the Christian faith. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Donation was taken as authentic, and it played a major role in justifying papal assertions during the investiture crisis that Harold Berman famously described in Law and Revolution. By the Renaissance, however, scholars within the Church had begun to have doubts. On the basis of textual analysis, Valla, a priest, demonstrated that the Donation was a forgery in the fifteenth century. Protestant reformers made much of the forgery in their arguments against the Catholic Church.



http://clrforum.org/2012/06/26/the-donation-of-constantine/ CENTER FOR LAW AND RELIGION

Answer 115

The first hoax that comes to mind is that boy stuck in the balloon.. It was successful for a while.

Answer 116

THE GREATEST HOAX EVER PERPETRATED WAS THE LIE satan told eve look at what it cost humanity 2.the theory of evolution it has never been proven and has been totally disproven scientifically

Answer 117

The so-called "Millenium Bug" which had most people in fear of everything from PC's crashing to aircraft falling out of the sky.

Answer 118

1) The Obama presidency.

2) The Lyndon Baines Johnson presidency

3) The Franklin Delano Roosevelt presidency

Answer 119

The Theory of Evolution.

Answer 120

The theory that getting a good job and making lots of money is important and matters in life.

Answer 121

That Bono, the lead "gurgler" in the band U2 can actually sing. What a "mega hoax" .

Answer 122

Barack Obama's qualifications for President.

Answer 123

Lochness Monster!

Answer 124

The Moon landing

Diana's death

Answer 125

the most famous in history was the selling of the eiffel tower in victorian times to a couple of idiots who were told you can now get the workmen in to take it down and ship it to your own country ok.

Answer 126

US invasion of Middle-East claiming it's for "peace", when in fact it's just to steal the wealth of the region.

Answer 127

a hamster asked this Question





the greatest of all hoaxes

Answer 128

12-21-12 apocalypse

Answer 129

Internet wise, Krispy Kreme(Froggy Fresh) has got to be one of the best and genius trolls ever.

Answer 130

The most "successful hoaxes" have always been those that were later proved to be true.

For example:

"The world really is flat!"

"No. I'm pretty sure is round..."

"You're an idiot! It's just a hoax! It's FLAT, I say!"



LOL

Answer 131

The english tory party and the old age dirtbags who vote for them.

Answer 132

the war of the worlds radio show. although it wasn't intended to be a hoax.

Answer 133

The old BBC documentary about spaghetti trees.

Answer 134

Unjustified and unreasonable circumcision of 1/3 human males Circumcision and any forms of genital mutilation (dorsal slits)



Religion created to give mankind false hope and live a lie

Answer 135

Global warming



The 9/11 events

Answer 136

The Alabama Crimson Tide

Answer 137

War of the Worlds first broadcast where everybody thought it was real.

Answer 138

Joseph Smith and the mormon religion. Which ironically, is connected directly to Te'o because it's the religion he has chosen to swallow as truth as well.

Answer 139

The Staged Sandy Hook Elementary School Shootings.

Answer 140

That Social Experiments can't and won't violate your civil rights or constitutional freedoms

Answer 141

Trojan Horse the original hoax is always the best :)

Answer 142

2012 apocalypse

Answer 143

Back during the 60's, it was alleged that smoking banana peels could get you high.

Answer 144

The idea that Miss Monroe committed suicide when Bobby Kennedy, that gangster Attorney General of the USA, ran from her bedroom leaving her to die.

Answer 145

The best hoax in history must be that Obama is a citizen of the USA that was actually born in the USA.

Answer 146

21 dec 2012 is gonna be true

Answer 147

Number one of course is worshipping god and church leaders.



B)Cannabis is schedule 1 drug (us6630507 is the patent # owned by the government since 2003 showing the successful treatment of cancer and more)



3) use these warm smallpox filled blankets to keep you warm

Answer 148

Plenty of sports events and competitions

Answer 149

All of the April Fools gags that were so big that they were televised, and everyone believed them

Answer 150

Salem witch trials.

Answer 151

Drop bears. Australian's will get that one :)



Its successful because everyone goes along with it lol

Answer 152

9/11

Answer 153

the notion that the country of the USA belongs to we the people. It used to be somewhat true before, but certainly in the last several decades and now more so than ever, it certainly is not so.

Answer 154

Barack Obama was born in Hawaii.

Answer 155

The world is running out of oil.

Global Warming.

Answer 156

Democracy.

Answer 157

The biggest hoax ever: Hello, I am from the government, here to help you!

Answer 158

The holocaust



Big lie

Answer 159

orsen wells war of the worlds radio broadcast. I was not duped by it as i was not alive yet ;)

Answer 160

Barack Obama and his "Hussein Care" crap. The fact that he got re-elected was a giant joke as well.

Answer 161

Lance Armstrong not using drugs- I read the guys biography for christ sake

Answer 162

Global warming, Obama's election & reelection.

Answer 163

chairman of Guinness when he got off criminal charges for having dementia and recovered from this incurable disease weeks later

Answer 164

http://www.securityg33k.com/blog/?p=346

Answer 165

Religion

Answer 166

definitely



9/11

and

Apollo 11 Moon Landing



i say this because the biggest amount of people fall victim to these lies and some still believe it today

Answer 167

Telling my wife I was pregnant to avoid doing the dishes.

Answer 168

The Holohoax (The Holocaust)



Most of what the Israeli Government say is a hoax and has been exposed

Look for the Finkelstein versus Dershowitz debate on youtube

Answer 169

Mayan Apocalypse (December 21,2012)

Answer 170

The Trojan Horse - A Classic! (Literally!)

Answer 171

Conservatives had a higher IQ.

Answer 172

The idea that autism is caused by routine vaccinations is still going strong. It was spread by celebrity mom Jenny McCarthy, who has also claimed that her son's autism is "cured".

Answer 173

The Shroud of Turin. Carbon dating proved that the material wasn't old enough to be Jesus' burial shroud.

Answer 174

Bigfoot is NOT a hoax.

Answer 175

Obama.

Answer 176

Big foot/sasquatch

Answer 177

mps when they tell us something thats historys biggest hoaxe

Answer 178

crop cirles

flat earth

bigfoot

Answer 179

Man made global warming.

Answer 180

According to Vyatcheslav Krasheninnikov: Humans were created about 7500 years ago. Birds participate in time creation. It's a sin to kill birds. Dinosaurs live under our level. They will get out through sinkholes and lakes. To kill them, go for their nerves.

Demons grow human skin and put it on so as to look like us.

Demons will invite people to be healed inside their UFOs; those who go will be like zombies after.

Gov't provides demons with diamonds and allows demons to abduct people.

If you're being abducted, scream: "JESUS!!!"

Demons use diamonds and souls to power their UFO craft.

The bigger the diamond, the more it lasts.

Demons have 4 UFO bases:

1)Moon

2)Inside fake mountain Kailash in Tibet

3)In lake Baikal in Russia

4)In Atlantis which is underneath the Mariana Trench in Pacific Ocean.

There are no aliens.

Nobody lives on other planets.

Airplanes that go down are hit by demons because they need the airspace to fight Jesus.

Antichrist is pale with red eyes. Don't go into a UFO to be healed by demons. 666 is given by isotope rays on wrist or forehead when people stretch hands to receive small plastic grey card (world passport). Police will chip and isotope ray people on highways. Food stores will isotope ray people too. Antichrist will also release prisoners to mark people. Reject 666 at all cost. If you're about to be marked, scream: "Lord, have mercy!" three times. Go hide with Orthodox Christians to escape 666.

God gives you a name during baptism.

Devil gives you an anti-name during anti-baptism.

Barcode is Druid black magic curse and a form of mark of the beast just like Social Security.

People who took any number (which is an anti-name given during anti-baptism by the beast) on documents or in computer go to temporary hell;

but those who receive green 666 (given with world passport with no name on it) on forehead or wrist go to permanent hell.

How not to go to hell?

Give back all these anti-name anti-baptism documents back to the beast

by writing to appropriate authorities.

If authorities refuse to cancel these anti-names, then write again (up to three times).

If you wrote to the gov't three times about it, but gov't refused, then God will not send you to hell.

Don't take the microchip. If you already took it, get rid of it because microchipped people will be influenced by computers to take the world passport (grey plastic card with no name on it).

Don't go into a UFO to be healed by demons. Those who reject 666 will go to heaven. Also, their direct ancestors will be saved from hell.

Answer 181

christianity is by far the cruelest and most mindless hoax ever perpetrated on mankind.

its truly sad to witness the damage inflicted throughout the centuries that arise from worshipping an invisible man in the clouds.

Answer 182

What is scary is that this crime was covered up by ALL government agencies.

Answer 183

2 terms of G.W. Bush , incredible .

Answer 184

Every major religion

Answer 185

Astrology.

Answer 186

Private property (NOT personal property)

Answer 187

the economy, magazines, etc.

also the government and president candidates lie a lot!

Answer 188

Labeling feminism as equal rights.

Answer 189

Sandy Hook massacre

Answer 190

W/O/.M/D and the eight yr Iraq war.

Answer 191

the best one and didn't any harm was the 2girls that phatographed FAIRY'S

Answer 192

the first moon landing

Answer 193

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,905773,00.html // the greatest of 'em all

Answer 194

ORSEN WELLS READING 'WAR OF THE WORLDS' ON RADIO

Answer 195

2pac and biggie hoax

Answer 196

spghetti trees

Answer 197

Spaghetti Tree it got so many people fooled in the UK

Answer 198

Tom Araya making everone think that Slayer is satanic and Anti-Christian when Tom Araya was a Catholic the entire time (span of the bands career). WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?...

Answer 199

To be truthful, everything is a hoax, one that has "duped" us all. Think about it.

Answer 200

That I lost my virginity in high school. Talk about gullible.

Answer 201

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjaiIzBGCow

Answer 202

love this one

Answer 203

diamonds

Answer 204

milli vanilli

Answer 205

Tupac is alive! He faked his death!!





There is so much evidence.

Answer 206

yahoo answers

Answer 207

Bernie Madoff

America's 'Housing Bubble'

Wall Street and 'Too Big to Fail'

Answer 208

Why do people have to lie about someone dying? Sick joke if you ask me.

Answer 209

Sandy Hook Elementary shooting.

Answer 210

The holohoax.



911 (jews did it)

Answer 211

No one knows about them.....

Answer 212

Christianity. 2000 years old and billions of people fell for it.

Answer 213

The moon landing.

Answer 214

The moon landing.



































Just kidding.

Answer 215

i would have to say the cardiff giant and the fiji mermaid

Answer 216

I like some of the BBC April Fool's pranks.

My favourite would have to be Flying Penguins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dfWzp7rYR4

Answer 217

bbc flying penguins

Answer 218

The Christian religion.

Answer 219

Obama lovers....they have not, nor will they admit he duped them and WE have to pay for it....

Answer 220

THe election of the BUSH fmaily to public office!! Do you like HIGH GAS PRICES!!! The BUSH family has owned OIL WELLS in iraq since the FIFTIES! wHAT DO YOU THINK THE war WITH iraq WAS REALLY ABOUT???? nOW THEY ARE all RETIRED ON A multi milliion dollar RANCH IN teXas! who HAS put them there??? we have WITH high gas prices!!!! eVERY TIME WE USE GAS, THE bush FAMILY GETS TO sit AND ENJOY LIFE, AND we all suffer WITH HIGH gas AND food PRICES, AND LOSE OUR JOBS!!!! neither OF THE bush WOMEN DID VERY MUCH FOR any PuBLIC CAUSE, NOw DID THEY??? AND WE VOTEED for them FOUR TIMES!!!! how stupid ARE WE REALLY!!! I wish I owned oil wells in IRAQ! I woudl try to protect them TOO! it was about OIL< those lousy wars that we lost LIVES and reputation to, NOT FREEDOM AT ALL! The FREEDOM of the bush family to DUPE US!

Answer 221

pearl harbor being a "surprise attack"

Answer 222

John Cena dead!





GOOD THING HE ISNT DEAD!



ALL WHO DISAGREE WILL SUFFER

Answer 223

UFO's

Answer 224

i would have to say religion

Answer 225

Piltdown Man is probably one of the most successful...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUaJeNSkbC0



But this is MY all-time favorite;



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzvuqs9Bf7Q

Answer 226

tooth fairies

lol

Answer 227

well i guess the big rumor now is sandy hook......

Answer 228

Religion.

Answer 229

Reality TV. It's def NOT reality.



But I still watch :)

Answer 230

All of the major religions must be considered, because only one of them (if that) can be correct. If, however, the hoax must be a deliberate act of deception these must be discounted. The founders may have been crazy people who believed what they were saying.



The greatest deliberate hoax of the last century was the deliberate deception of the Axis by the Allies with regard to the landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944. Through the use of elaborate schemes the Allies convinced the German high command, most importantly Hitler himself, that the invasion would be coming ashore just east of Calais.



An already drowned sailor was dressed as an officer and allowed to wash ashore in Spain where Axis agents would find it, carrying documents with the landing beaches outlined. General George Patton was tasked with creating the illusion of armed camps where there were none, and the Germans were encouraged to believe that he would be the overall commander. The Dam Busters squadron of the RAF trained to drop tinfoil, that simulated a landing fleet on German radar, and did so on D Day so effectively that the defences opened fire on the phantom fleet.



These efforts and others were so successful that Adolf Hitler remained convinced that the Normandy landings were a diversion and held his armoured divisions near Calais to repel the true attack he expected for two whole weeks!



Given that the stakes were perhaps the highest in history and the deception so complete I submit that this MUST be considered the most successful hoax in history.

Answer 231

Church

Answer 232

The bible?

Answer 233

LIFE.





LIFE IS A HOAX.

WE ARE ALL IN A DREAM. ;D

Answer 234

christmass/santa clause.

Answer 235

Jesus

Answer 236

well i will say peeing on someone

Answer 237

yes he waz

Answer 238

God.

Answer 239

IDK dnt ask again xD haha lmao

Answer 240

God.

Answer 241

God.

Answer 242

That the GOP are that dumb! They can,t be, Can they??

Answer 243

i can think of 3 jfk assasanaton moon landing and alians

Answer 244

global warming

evolution

the big bang

Answer 245

1. That Bill Clinton was the friend of working people. 2. That cars can only run reliably on fossil fuel and finally, the most unbelievable hoax that cannot be killed: 3. Americans are free. (I'm nearly p-ing my pants that people actually believe this).

Answer 246

Jesus Christ

Answer 247

anything that is god related

Answer 248

WMDS in Iraq, Jessica Lynch, and the Kennedy lone-shooter bullshit.

Answer 249

Hello team yahoo!



Look who's here in Brazil is more trotting actor SANTOS program the mouse .....





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nCuGbVQapI >>>



Thank you.

Answer 250

Moon landings

9/11 was the work of Al Qaeda

Lee harvey Oswald responsible for the Kennedy assassination

Princes Diana's death

Answer 251

Eugenics.

Alchemy.

Manmade Global Warming.

Crop Circles.

Bigfoot.

Answer 252

The official story of the 9/11 events is one of the top hoaxes to date. No, I was not duped to believing the official story, I did actual research other than the media.



With so many thumbs downs, it's so comforting to see that people still believe in this obvious nonsense.

Answer 253

Global Warming