To learn more about some of the most believable and widely-spread false stories in recent memory, take a look at our list of the 16 biggest internet hoaxes that fooled the world.
If you are interested in more dishonest internet phenomena, check out our list of 11 countries with most hackers and cyber criminals.
The internet is both a wonderful gift, and an awful curse. While the creation of the internet has done wonders for the spread of information across the globe, bad always comes along with the good, and there will always be someone out to abuse such an easy highway for information. While a light-hearted prank can be funny and entertaining, dissemination of false stories can also have devastating effects.
In order to create our list of biggest internet hoaxes that fooled the world, we took information from BGR, RealityPod, and Mashable to compile the biggest internet hoaxes of all time. We created and sorted our list by the average order in which they were ranked across sites. Not all stories were mentioned across all platforms, and those received a lower ranking than those appearing in every source.
Keep reading to learn more details about the biggest internet hoaxes that fooled the world.
16. The Montauk Monster
The hoax of the Montauk Monster started with a newspaper back in July of 2008 in Montauk, New York. The story began when an unidentifiable dead creature washed up on the beach. Shortly after the story’s release, photos exploded everywhere on the internet. The Montauk Monster was born because no one knew what the creature was, and to this day, after almost ten years, no one has ever figured out what the strange animal was. People have guessed it to be anything from a raccoon, to a dog, and even a capybara.
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