Explained and disputed
Famous fakes and claims that did not hold up, and how they were exposed. 53 events, newest first.
Select any year above to see what happened that year.
Open Hoaxes and debunked claims as a timeline
Media6 Jun 2025
The Wall Street Journal reported that AARO had found officers were told about a fictional alien program, 'Yankee Blue', as a hazing ritual, and that an Air Force colonel passed fake saucer photos near Area 51 to shield stealth work. The Pentagon has not published these findings.
Photo: David James Henry, CC BY-SA 4.0
Media14 Nov 2023
Journalist and historian Garrett M. Graff published 'UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government's Search for Alien Life Here - and Out There' with Avid Reader Press. Reviewers noted it surveys decades of official investigations, debunks many cases and takes no firm stance on what UFOs are.
Photo: Rosiestep, CC BY-SA 4.0
Government12 Sep 2023
At Mexico's first congressional UAP hearing, journalist Jaime Maussan displayed two small mummified bodies he claimed were non-human. UNAM said its lab had only carbon-dated samples and drew no conclusions about origin; scientists widely called the bodies a hoax.
Photo: ProtoplasmaKid, CC BY-SA 4.0
Media2015
In 2015 Mexican TV personality Jaime Maussan championed the 'Roswell Slides', photos claimed to show an alien body. The figure was identified as the mummified body of a two-year-old boy, and the slides are now counted among the hoaxes he promoted.
Media2015
Filmmaker Jennifer Stein released a documentary on Travis Walton's account of being taken aboard a craft in Arizona in 1975 and how the claim shaped his life. Stein said she made it to counter efforts to debunk him; the case remains disputed.
Photo: SMG2019, CC BY-SA 4.0
Whistleblowers29 Apr 2013
Activist Stephen Bassett's Paradigm Research Group staged a five-day mock hearing at the National Press Club, with six former members of Congress, reportedly paid $20,000 each, hearing witnesses on UFOs. It was not an official proceeding; one panelist called it a pseudo-hearing.
Photo: ajay_suresh, CC BY 4.0
Whistleblowers2013
In the 2013 documentary Mirage Men, former Air Force Office of Special Investigations agent Richard Doty admitted infiltrating UFO circles. The film says Doty and colleagues fed false material to researchers, notably New Mexico businessman Paul Bennewitz.
Photo: The Evening Times, Public domain
Media15 Jul 2010
Syfy launched Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files, in which a team led by former FBI agent Ben Hansen tried to recreate viral photos and videos, including UFO footage, to judge whether they were hoaxes or unexplained.
MediaNov 2009
Universal agreed to pay the Alaska Press Club after promotion for The Fourth Kind, a film about alleged abductions in Nome, used fabricated news stories attributed to real Alaska papers. The deal included removing the fake articles from the web.
Photo: Sir Mildred Pierce , from North Augusta, South Carolina , USA, CC BY 2.0
MediaOct 2009
A Colorado couple said their 6-year-old son had floated away in a homemade saucer-shaped helium balloon, setting off a chase and search costing at least $62,000. The boy was found at home; the parents pleaded guilty to charges over the staged stunt and were sentenced.
Photo: Sgt. Benjamin Crane, Public domain
Sightings5 Jan 2009
Red lights over Morris County, New Jersey, drew many UFO reports and national TV attention in early 2009. On April 1 Chris Russo and Joe Rudy revealed they had launched road flares on helium balloons as a social experiment; they were fined $250 each for disorderly conduct.
Photo: Jared Kofsky, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings21 Apr 2008
Residents across north Phoenix reported a line of red lights that shifted formation and faded one by one; Luke Air Force Base said no aircraft of its were involved. Two days later a local man told a TV station he had tied road flares to helium balloons, and police declined to investigate.
Photo: Alan Stark, CC BY-SA 2.0
WhistleblowersMar 2007
Former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington, who mocked the 1997 Phoenix Lights at a staged news conference, said he had seen a large craft that night and believed it was not of this world. An astronomer quoted by AP traced sightings that night to flares dropped by A-10 aircraft.
Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0
MediaApr 2006
Ahead of a 2006 comedy film about them, Ray Santilli and Gary Shoefield said the 1995 'alien autopsy' footage was a re-creation they staged, which they called a restoration of film they claimed to have seen. Sculptor John Humphreys said he made the alien body.
Media28 Dec 1998
Fox, which aired 'Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction?' in 1995, broadcast 'World's Greatest Hoaxes: Secrets Finally Revealed,' hosted by Lance Henriksen. The special presented the autopsy footage as staged and was made by the same executive producer, Robert Kiviat.
MediaJul 1997
Roswell, New Mexico, staged a celebration for the 50th anniversary of the 1947 debris recovery, with tens of thousands of visitors expected. It came days after the Air Force released 'The Roswell Report: Case Closed', which attributed alien-body stories to test dummies.
Photo: J Dykstra, Public domain
Media1996
Astronomer Carl Sagan's book on scientific skepticism used UFO and alien abduction claims as central case studies, attributing reported encounters to hallucination, misidentification, hoaxes and therapists' influence, and comparing abduction stories with older demon lore.
Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY-SA 4.0
Media1996
Nuclear physicist and ufologist Stanton Friedman published 'Top Secret/Majic', defending the authenticity of the disputed Majestic-12 papers, which describe a secret Truman-era group handling a recovered saucer. The papers' authenticity is widely disputed, and skeptics call them fakes.
Photo: AllenS, Public domain
Media28 Aug 1995
Fox broadcast a special built around Ray Santilli's black-and-white film said to show a 1947 alien autopsy, hosted by Jonathan Frakes. In 2006 Santilli admitted the film was a staged recreation, while still claiming it was based on genuine footage he had seen; no such footage has been produced.
Media1 Oct 1994
TNT aired a two-hour live special, 'The UFO Cover-Up? Live From Area 51', with Larry King broadcasting a few miles from the base. A preview listed guests including Carl Sagan, Barry Goldwater and William Shatner, with debunkers alongside believers.
Photo: Simon Johansson, Public domain
Close encounters25 Apr 1994
TIME reported that Donna Bassett, a Boston writer, said she invented an abduction story and faked hypnotic-regression sessions with Harvard psychiatrist John Mack, who she said asked leading questions. Mack cited patient confidentiality; she repeated the account at a skeptics' conference in 1995.
Photo: Becket01, CC BY-SA 4.0
MediaApr 1994
Aerospace historian Curtis Peebles published 'Watch the Skies! A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth' with the Smithsonian Institution Press, a skeptical history arguing UFO reports stem from misidentifications, hoaxes and an evolving cultural myth.
MediaOct 1991
Ballantine Books published Jacques Vallee's 'Revelations', the last book of his alien contact trilogy. Vallee argued that many UFO stories were deliberate hoaxes or manipulation by private groups or government psychological-warfare efforts, and that researchers had been misled.
Photo: Christopher Michel, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sightings1990
A photo said to show a lighted triangle over Petit-Rechain became the best-known image of the Belgian wave and was analyzed by the Royal Military Academy and others. Its author later admitted it was a hoax.
Photo: J.S. Henrardi, Public domain
Media1982
Space engineer and writer James Oberg published 'UFOs and Outer Space Mysteries: A Sympathetic Skeptic's Report' with Donning. Reviewers noted he examined astronaut and space-related UFO stories and hoax photos and concluded the evidence did not convince him.
Photo: RobertoTenore, CC BY-SA 4.0
