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29-546: The Lake George Monster , fittingly nicknamed "Georgie", was a hoax invented by painter Harry Watrous after a fishing bet with newspaper editor Colonel William d'Alton Mann in 1904. The monster was purportedly sighted at Hague Bay in Lake George in New York , United States . This was a reported solution to an ongoing rivalry that Watrous had with another resident (Colonel Mann). After word had spread about, Watrous began to move

58-411: A 10-foot-long cedar log, he builds a bizarre-looking creature. It has bright red fangs, large eyes, a massive open mouth with a long tongue and strands of whiskers made from hemp rope. Watrous then threaded a 100-foot-long rope through an anchor at the bottom of the lake and through a pulley at the end of the log the monster rested on. So by tugging on the rope, he is able to make the monster rise up out of

87-528: A best man. A resulting video clip of Chloe and Keith's Wedding was uploaded to YouTube and was viewed by over 30 million people and the couple was interviewed by numerous talk shows. Viewers were deluded into thinking that it was an authentic clip of a real accident at a real wedding; but a story in USA Today in 2009 revealed it was a hoax. Governments sometimes spread false information to facilitate their objectives, such as going to war. These often come under

116-417: A fictional story can be communicated: in person, via word of mouth , via words printed on paper, and so on. As communications technology has advanced, the speed at which hoaxes spread has also advanced: a rumour about a ghostly drummer, spread by word of mouth, will affect a relatively small area at first, then grow gradually. However, hoaxes could also be spread via chain letters , which became easier as

145-428: A science project, but they can grow exponentially and be hard to stop. Infamously, the salacious Claire Swire email spread in a chain-like fashion when its recipient sought to learn Swire's identity. Messages sometimes include phony promises from companies or wealthy individuals (such as Bill Gates ) promising a monetary reward to everyone who receives the message. They may also be politically motivated, such as "Save

174-459: Is a news report containing facts that are either inaccurate or false but which are presented as genuine. A hoax news report conveys a half-truth used deliberately to mislead the public. Hoax may serve the goal of propaganda or disinformation – using social media to drive web traffic and amplify their effect. Unlike news satire , fake news websites seek to mislead, rather than entertain, readers for financial or political gain. Hoax news

203-460: Is disputed. Robert Nares defined the word hoax as meaning "to cheat", dating from Thomas Ady 's 1656 book A candle in the dark, or a treatise on the nature of witches and witchcraft . The term hoax is occasionally used in reference to urban legends and rumours, but the folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand argues that most of them lack evidence of deliberate creations of falsehood and are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes, so

232-464: Is not necessarily clear. Alex Boese, the creator of the Museum of Hoaxes , states that the only distinction between them is the reaction of the public, because a fraud can be classified as a hoax when its method of acquiring financial gain creates a broad public impact or captures the imagination of the masses. One of the earliest recorded media hoaxes is a fake almanac published by Jonathan Swift under

261-406: Is often intended as a practical joke or to cause embarrassment, or to provoke social or political change by raising people's awareness of something. It can also emerge from a marketing or advertising purpose. For example, to market a romantic comedy film, a director staged a phony "incident" during a supposed wedding, which showed a bride and preacher getting knocked into a pool by a clumsy fall from

290-480: Is usually released with the intention of misleading to injure an organisation, individual, or person, and/or benefit financially or politically, sometimes utilising sensationalist, deceptive, or simply invented headlines to maximise readership. Likewise, clickbait reports and articles from this operation gain advertisement revenue. Chain letter Common methods used in chain letters include emotionally manipulative stories, get-rich-quick pyramid schemes , and

319-485: The Dihydrogen monoxide hoax . Political hoaxes are sometimes motivated by the desire to ridicule or besmirch opposing politicians or political institutions , often before elections. A hoax differs from a magic trick or from fiction (books, film, theatre, radio, television, etc.) in that the audience is unaware of being deceived, whereas in watching a magician perform an illusion the audience expects to be tricked. A hoax

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348-559: The University of Nevada, Reno , some hoaxes – such as the Great Stock Exchange Fraud of 1814 , labelled as a hoax by contemporary commentators – are financial in nature, and successful hoaxers – such as P. T. Barnum , whose Fiji mermaid contributed to his wealth – often acquire monetary gain or fame through their fabrications, so the distinction between hoax and fraud

377-566: The Scouts, forward this to as many friends as possible" or a warning that a popular TV or radio show may be forced off the air. Some, such as the Hawaiian Good Luck Totem , which has spread in thousands of forms, threaten users with bad luck if not forwarded. Platforms such as Twitter and YouTube can host chain letters playing with users' emotions. They may also be in the form of warnings, such as stories of escaped convicts, which urge

406-467: The United States. The typical letters included a list of names and instructed the recipient to send money to the name at the top of the list, remove that name, add their own name to the bottom of the list, and forward the letters to two more people. Some email messages sent as chain letters may seem fairly harmless; for example, a school student wishing to see how many people can receive their email for

435-487: The cost of mailing a letter dropped. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century brought down the cost of a mass-produced books and pamphlets, and the rotary printing press of the 19th century reduced the price even further (see yellow journalism ). During the 20th century, the hoax found a mass market in the form of supermarket tabloids , and by the 21st century there were fake news websites which spread hoaxes via social networking websites (in addition to

464-418: The either malicious or humorous intent of causing shock and interest in as many people as possible. Some hoaxers intend to eventually unmask their representations as having been a hoax so as to expose their victims as fools; seeking some form of profit, other hoaxers hope to maintain the hoax indefinitely, so that it is only when skeptical people willing to investigate their claims publish their findings, that

493-412: The exploitation of superstition to threaten the recipient. Originally, chain letters were letters sent by mail; today, chain letters are often sent electronically via email , social network sites , and text messages . There are two main types of chain letter: In the United States, chain letters that request money or other items of value and promise a substantial return to the participants (such as

522-441: The form of Myspace bulletins) and YouTube (in the form of video comments) as well as on Facebook through messages or applications. For instance, the chain post/email of Carmen Winstead , supposedly about a girl from Indiana who was pushed down a sewage drain in a fire drill, states that, "if you do not repost/send this to 10 people, Carmen will find you and kill you." Chain letters are often coupled with intimidating hoaxes or

551-552: The heading of black propaganda. There is often a mixture of outright hoax and suppression and management of information to give the desired impression. In wartime and times of international tension rumours abound, some of which may be deliberate hoaxes. Examples of politics-related hoaxes: Psychologist Peter Hancock has identified six steps which characterise a truly successful hoax: Hoaxes vary widely in their processes of creation, propagation, and entrenchment over time. Examples include: Hoax news (also referred to as fake news )

580-543: The hoaxers are finally revealed as such. Zhang Yingyu's The Book of Swindles ( c. 1617), published during the late Ming dynasty , is said to be China's first collection of stories about fraud, swindles, hoaxes, and other forms of deception. Although practical jokes have likely existed for thousands of years, one of the earliest recorded hoaxes in Western history was the drummer of Tedworth in 1661. The communication of hoaxes can be accomplished in almost any manner that

609-499: The infamous Make Money Fast scheme) are illegal. Some colleges and military bases have passed regulations stating that in the private mail of college students and military personnel, respectively, chain letters are not authorized and will be thrown out. However, it is often difficult to distinguish chain letters from genuine correspondence. The oldest known channel for chain letters is written, or printed, on letters on paper. These might be exchanged hand-to-hand or distributed through

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638-692: The mail. One notorious early example was the "Prosperity Club" or "Send-a-Dime" letter. This letter started in Denver, Colorado in 1935, based on an earlier luck letter. It soon swamped the Denver post office with hundreds of thousands of letters before spilling into St. Louis and other cities. In 1964, the head of the United States Postal Inspection Service ordered a nationwide crackdown on violators of postal fraud and lottery laws due to an increase of chain letters reported around college towns in

667-740: The monster around the lake for more publicity. The monster was also sighted at The View restaurant, near Hague . The original monster is currently on display at the Clifton F. West Historical Museum in the Hague Town Hall in Hague, New York . A replica of the monster can be found at the Lake George Historical Museum in Lake George, New York . According to Mysteries at the Monument , Harry Watrous and Colonel William Mann were avid fishermen, and

696-526: The pseudonym of Isaac Bickerstaff in 1708. Swift predicted the death of John Partridge , one of the leading astrologers in England at that time, in the almanac and later issued an elegy on the day Partridge was supposed to have died. Partridge's reputation was damaged as a result and his astrological almanac was not published for the next six years. It is possible to perpetrate a hoax by making only true statements using unfamiliar wording or context, such as in

725-410: The reader to pass the message on. One chain letter distributed on MSN Hotmail began, "Hey it's Tara and John the directors of MSN..." and subsequently claimed readers' accounts would be deleted if they did not pass on the message. Another common form of email chain letter is the virus hoax and a form of cyberbullying . Chain letters within social media platforms became widespread on Myspace (in

754-443: The term should be used for only those with a probable conscious attempt to deceive. As for the closely related terms practical joke and prank , Brunvand states that although there are instances where they overlap, hoax tends to indicate "relatively complex and large-scale fabrications" and includes deceptions that go beyond the merely playful and "cause material loss or harm to the victim." According to Professor Lynda Walsh of

783-414: The two decided to see who could catch the biggest trout in the lake. When Mann showed Watrous a 40-pound whopper he had just caught, he knew he wasn't going to catch anything bigger and realized he had lost the bet. However, days later, Watrous discovers he had been pranked, Mann had ordered a fake fish, and from a distance it looked real. Watrous then decides to get even; he would scare the colonel, and using

812-415: The use of email for a modern type of chain letter ). The English philologist Robert Nares (1753–1829) says that the word hoax was coined in the late 18th century as a contraction of the verb hocus , which means "to cheat", "to impose upon" or (according to Merriam-Webster ) "to befuddle often with drugged liquor." Hocus is a shortening of the magic incantation hocus pocus , whose origin

841-426: The water at will. Watrous pulled his friendly prank over and over, sparking the frenzy of sightings all those years ago before abandoning the gag for good. But 30 years later, Watrous revived his monster with the intent of revealing his secret as a practical joke. Hoax A hoax (plural: hoaxes ) is a widely publicised falsehood created to deceive its audience with false and often astonishing information, with

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