5 WORST HOAXES

5 WORST HOAXES

A hoax is news or an act which is intended to deceive or trick. Most of the time, it attracts wide public attention and causes mass wonder. Care to know the five worst hoaxes that have deceived the general public? Check out the following frauds.

1

Crop Circle in Yogyakarta (2011) 
 

Indonesians were stunned when a crop circle suddenly appeared in the middle of a rice field in Sleman, Yogyakarta. Although a crop circle – a mysterious phenomenon believed to be a trace left by a UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) – is not a new thing. It still raises curiosity among people. An investigation of the crop circle in Sleman showed that no strange materials were found in the area, suggesting that the UFO  landing theory was far from reality. Letter some UGM students admitted that they had created the crop circle.

2

Balloon Boy Hoax (2009)
 

On October, 15, 2009, Ruchard and Mayumi Heene from Colorado, USA reported that their six-year-old boy named Falcon accidentally got inside a helium balloon and  floated upwards. The incident got media attention in a short time as both national and international media covered the news. After an hour, the balloon landed without Falcon inside. Afraid that the boy had fallen off the balloon, the police scanned the entire area only to find nothing. Later in the afternoon the boy was found hiding in  the attic of his family home. Careful investigation of the case letter showed that the whole incident was only a hoax intended to promote and upcoming reality show.

3

Alien Autopsy (1995)
 

In 1995, an amateur alien investigator named Ray Santilli released a seven-minute black and white footage taken inside a U.S. military tent after a 1947 incident. Which was widely believed to have been a UFA crash in Roshwell, New Mexico. The footage showed the remains of two aliens. In 2006, the video was revealed as a hoax when Ray admitted he had made the footage. Jhon Humpreys, a sculptor, was hired to create two alien dummies using sheep brains, chicken entrails, and knuckle joints.

4

The Cottingley Fairies (1917)
 

Fairies are real. Or, at least, so they seemed as shown on five black-and-white photographs taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, two cousins who lived in Cottingley, England, in 1917. The photographs got public attention two years later when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author of the Sherlock Holmes series) stated that the photographs were authentic. The reactions were varied: some believed the story was true, while other didn’t. fifty years later, the two cousins admitted that the fairies were only made of cutouts from a famous fairy tale book at the time.

5

Feejee Mermaid (1842)
 

The Feejee Mermaid was the mummified body of a creature resembling half mammal and half fish. It attracted mass attention when it was shown in a broadway concert hall in New York in 1842. DR. Griffin, a British scientist who proclaimed himself as the one who caught the mermaid in the Fiji Islands, told about his experience in front of naive audiences across the USA. The mermaid was later proved as fake, made of papier-mache with a monkey torso and a fish tail stitched together. It was as much as fraud as DR. Griffin himself, whose name was Levi Lyman.

Sumber : C ‘n’ S Vol. II No.87 May-June 2012