# The most famous hoaxes in history

The fake Hitler diaries in Stern, Piltdown Man, the Cottingley Fairies, a woman who supposedly gave birth to rabbits and an invented colony that sent settlers to their deaths: the hoaxes the world fell for. Which is the most brazen?

- 1 vote · 20 items
- Apr 8, 2026 · Moritz König
- https://even.best/en/l/3516/the-most-famous-hoaxes-in-history

## Top 20

1. **The War of the Worlds broadcast (1938)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Orson Welles's radio play about a Martian invasion; the mass panic was greatly exaggerated.
2. **The Hitler Diaries (1983)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Stern paid millions for Konrad Kujau's forgeries.
3. **Piltdown Man (1912)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — A "missing link" made from a medieval skull and an orangutan jaw.
4. **The Cottingley Fairies (1917–1920)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Two girls photographed paper fairies; even Arthur Conan Doyle believed in them.
5. **Bower and Chorley's crop circles (1978–1991)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Two men made crop circles across England for years.
6. **The Amityville Horror (1975)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — The Lutz family's haunting story, an invented bestseller.
7. **The Cardiff Giant (1869)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — A ten-foot "petrified man" shown for an entrance fee.
8. **Balloon Boy (2009)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Parents faked their son flying off in a balloon.
9. **Mary Toft's rabbits (1726)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — An Englishwoman claimed to give birth to rabbits.
10. **Milli Vanilli (1989)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — The duo did not sing themselves and lost their Grammy.
11. **Poyais (1820–1823)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Gregor MacGregor sold land in a country that did not exist.
12. **Mumler's spirit photographs (1860s)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Double exposures sold as "proof" of ghosts.
13. **The Great Moon Hoax (1835)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — The New York Sun reported on life on the Moon.
14. **The Tasaday (1971–1986)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — A supposedly uncontacted people in the Philippines.
15. **The Raëlian clones (2002)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — A sect claimed to have cloned the first human.
16. **Living megalodons (2013)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — A Shark Week mockumentary many took for real.
17. **"Go Ask Alice" (1971)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — A supposedly real diary that was made up.
18. **Napoleon's fake death (1814)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — A false report to make money on the London Stock Exchange.
19. **The Manti Te'o case (2012)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — A football star mourned a girlfriend who never existed.
20. **The Roswell alien autopsy (1995)** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Ray Santilli's film, later admitted to be a re-creation.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.