Why so many hoaxes?

Many people have asked this question, but I have never seen a whole thread on it (please correct me if I am wrong).
Why are there so many UFO and Alien hoaxes out there???

Why would somebody put all that effort (some of them take a lot of effort) into pulling off a fake? It's not like they are going to become rich in doing so is it?

Ok, so the many people who have written books about their 'encounters' may be the exceptions here, they do make money from what they say (whether it's true or not).

I see many many photos and videos on this forum, and many people just come out and say easily "It's a fake" - lets say it was a fake - why do it?
What do you people think?

I have come up with a couple of suggestions of my own:
* People trying to discredit UFOlogy.
* Disinformation.
* People taking the mick out of beleivers.

The first 2 suggestions are kind of the same, except disinformation could be used to throw researchers completely off course (a theory many people here have put foreward).

Any ideas? I just simply cannot accept the idea that the people doing the fakes, are doing it to take the mick.

[edit on 17-7-2004 by MetalHead]

I have wondered this some myself. Seems like for some it is an internal satisfaction in that something "special" has happened to them and gets them attention. Even if no monetary value has been gained.

We want to justify our existence, so we create myths with beings that are above us, with higher abilities than us, that can manipulate us as well as the reality we live in.

1 money- book sales
2 fame - seeking attention
3 money - so called "experts" fleecing suckers at meetings
4 support of wacko beliefs
5 money - website popularity
6 Everyone loves to fool others, makes you feel superior
7 money - interviews, engagements, tv
8 people are so gullible they believe anything (blame TV for creating an inability to seperate fact from fiction cf: stargate)
9 money - its the only way some losers can make a lving
10 money, power, prestige .....
11 Money - everytime you write a book you need new material, to get that you need new "information" therefore you need to get out there and invent it...



[edit on 17-7-2004 by Netchicken]

I would guess its the same reason viruses are written(not the ones that actually steal information or whatever, but the ones that just spread quickly). You are now an anoymous person who created this thing that hundreds and hundreds of ppl have seen.

If you are a person who needs something like that to feel like they mean something in this world, I am very sorry for them.

---pineapple

What is more suprising than the hoaxes is how people HATE to be told they are believing in a hoax. When you finally expose something as a hoax, they go out and believe in something else thats just as wacko, having never learned from it.

That leads me to the conclusion that there are people with certian issues that make them more suseptable to hoaxes than others. Maybe they were dropped as babies, or missed out on some pre school education or something....

to many crackpots with to much time on their hands i reckon...

Hmmm....I think probally money, publicity, but for those who are deeply into the UFO culture I think they create them, to try and justify what they are believing.

Its like why do some people create hoax's where religion is involved ? because they are probally trying to create proof that what they believe in might not be true.

Because people fall for them too easily. The UFO community is allows waiting for the almighty "proof" and hoaxers exploit this, loads of fake pictures have appeared over the years.

With all the many HOAXES out there, I just stopped believing!

The only thing I believe now is that there is a connection between the govt. and aliens...but thats all I want to believe.

too many hoaxers....

I really can't tell what is real and what is fake anymore. For all we know, there could be a good portion of real UFO or EBE photos out there, but we would assume they are fake and vice versa. It sucks.....

Sometimes the hoaxes themselves aren't half as damaging to the UFO community and it's goals as the people who believe in the hoaxes.

Recently, it was revealed that the mysterious "Dragon in a Jar" was a fake and was created to garner attention for a desperate "writer" who was being continually rejected by publishers. Dozens of "experts" and "researchers" scurried away once it was revealed. Others continued to justify their false evidence and assert that it was genuine. This craziness, of course, made the Cryptozoology community look a bit bad. Cryptozoology's own believers did far more damage to the communities credibility than the hoax itself did and the same goes for the UFO community.

[edit on 7/20/2004 by Sinobyte]