An impostor (also spelled imposter) is a person who pretends to be somebody else, often through means of

disguise A disguise can be anything which conceals or changes a person's physical appearance, including a wig, glasses, makeup, fake moustache, costume or other items. Camouflage is a type of disguise for people, animals and objects. Hats, glasses, chan ...

. Their objective is usually to try to gain financial or social advantages through

social engineering Social engineering may refer to: * Social engineering (political science), a means of influencing particular attitudes and social behaviors on a large scale * Social engineering (security), obtaining confidential information by manipulating and/or ...

, but also often for purposes of

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...

law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term en ...

Notable impostors

False nationality claims

Princess Caraboo Mary Baker (née Willcocks; 11 November 1792 (alleged), Witheridge, Devonshire, England – 24 December 1864, Bristol, England) was an English impostor. Posing as the fictional Princess Caraboo, Baker pretended to come from a far-off island ki ...

(1791–1864), Englishwoman who pretended to be a princess from a fictional island *

Korla Pandit Korla Pandit (September 16, 1921 – October 2, 1998), born John Roland Redd, was an American musician, composer, pianist, and organist. After moving to California in the late 1940s and getting involved in show business, Redd became known as "Kor ...

(1921–1998), African-American pianist/organist who pretended to be from India *

George Psalmanazar George Psalmanazar ( 1679 – 3 May 1763) was a Frenchman who claimed to be the first native of Formosa (today Taiwan) to visit Europe. For some years he convinced many in Britain, but he was eventually revealed to be of European origins. He sub ...

(1679–1763), who claimed to be from

Formosa Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is an island country located in East Asia. The main island of Taiwan, formerly known in the Western political circles, press and literature as Formosa, makes up 99% of the land area of the territorie ...

False minority national identity claims

Joseph Boyden Joseph Boyden (born October 31, 1966) is a Canadian novelist and short story writer of Irish and Scottish descent. He also claims Indigenous descent, but this is widely disputed. Joseph Boyden is best known for writing about First Nations culture ...

(born 1966) Canadian writer who falsely claimed

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

ancestry * H. G. Carrillo (1960–2020), American writer and assistant professor of English at

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

who claimed to be a Cuban immigrant despite having been born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

to American parents. *

Asa Earl Carter Asa Earl Carter (September 4, 1925 – June 7, 1979) was a 1950s segregationist speech writer, and later Western novelist. He co-wrote George Wallace's well-known pro- segregation line of 1963, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregati ...

(1925–1979), who under the alias of supposedly

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

writer Forrest Carter, authored several books, including '' The Education of Little Tree'' *

Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance (born Sylvester Clark Long; December 1, 1890 – March 20, 1932) was a journalist, writer and film actor who, for a time, became internationally prominent as a spokesman for Native Americans in the United States, Na ...

(1890–1932), an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

who claimed to be the son of a Blackfoot chief *

Iron Eyes Cody Iron Eyes Cody (born Espera Oscar de Corti, April 3, 1904 – January 4, 1999) was an American actor of Italian descent who portrayed Native Americans in Hollywood films, famously as ''Chief Iron Eyes'' in Bob Hope's '' The Paleface'' (1948) ...

(1904–1999),

Italian American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, ...

actor (the "crying Indian chief" in the "

Keep America Beautiful Keep America Beautiful is a nonprofit organization founded in 1953. It is the largest community improvement organization in the United States, with more than 700 state and community-based affiliate organizations and more than 1,000 partner organiz ...

public service announcement A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...

s in the early 1970s), who claimed to be of Cherokee-

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

ancestry *

Helen Darville Helen Dale (born Helen Darville; 1972) is an Australian writer and lawyer. She is best known for writing ''The Hand that Signed the Paper'', a novel about a Ukrainian family who collaborated with the Nazis in The Holocaust, under the pseudonym ...

(born 1972), Australian writer who falsely claimed Ukrainian ancestry as part of the basis of her novel ''The Hand that Signed the Paper'' about a Ukrainian family who collaborated with Nazis in the Holocaust *

Rachel Dolezal Nkechi Amare Diallo (; born Rachel Anne Dolezal, November 12, 1977) () is an American former college instructor and activist known for identifying as a transracial black woman. In addition to claiming black ancestry, she also claimed Native Ame ...

(born 1977), former president of the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Canada ...

, who claimed

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

heritage despite being born to white parents *

Grey Owl Archibald Stansfeld Belaney (; September 18, 1888 – April 13, 1938), commonly known as Grey Owl, was a British-born conservationist, fur trapper, and writer who disguised himself as a Native American man. While he achieved fame as a co ...

(1888–1938), born Archibald Belaney, an Englishman who took on the identity of an

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

Jamake Highwater Jamake Highwater (born Jackie Marks, also known as Jay or J Marks; 14 February 1931 – June 3, 2001) was an American writer and journalist of Eastern European Jewish ancestry who mispresented himself as Cherokee. In the late 1960s, Marks assum ...

(1931–2001), writer and journalist, born Jackie Marks into an

Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

family who later claimed he was a

American Indian *

Jessica A. Krug Jessica Anne Krug (born ) is an American historian, author, and activist who taught at George Washington University (GWU) from 2012 to 2020, eventually becoming a tenured associate professor of history. Her publications include ''Fugitive Mode ...

("Jess 'La Bombalera'"), former associate professor at

who admitted to falsely claiming identities including "North African Blackness, then US rooted Blackness, then Caribbean rooted Bronx Blackness" throughout her career while being Jewish. *

Sacheen Littlefeather Marie Louise Cruz (November 14, 1946 – October 2, 2022), better known as Sacheen Littlefeather, was an American actress, model, and activist on behalf of Native American civil rights. Littlefeather represented Marlon Brando at the 45th Aca ...

(Marie Louise Cruz) was a model and activist who rejected Marlon Brando's Academy Award at the 1973 Oscars out of protest. Her Apache Indian impersonation was not made public until her funeral in 2022, when her sisters asserted their Mexican descent. *

BethAnn McLaughlin BethAnn McLaughlin is an American neuroscientist, activist, and hoaxer. She is a former assistant professor of neurology at Vanderbilt University. Her research at Vanderbilt focused on neural stress responses and brain injury. After being denied ...

neuroscientist who impersonated a bisexual Native American using the

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

handle "@Sciencing_bi". *

Red Thunder Cloud Red Thunder Cloud (May 30, 1919January 8, 1996), born Cromwell Ashbie Hawkins West, also known as Carlos Westez, was a singer, dancer, storyteller, and field researcher. For a time he was promoted by anthropologists as "the last fluent speaker of ...

(1919–1996), an

who claimed to be the last speaker of the

Catawba language Catawba () is one of two Eastern Siouan languages of the eastern US, which together with the Western Siouan languages formed the Siouan language family. The last native, fluent speaker of Catawba was Missouri Brindle' The Catawba tribe is now wo ...

* Andrea Smith, an American academic, feminist, and activist against violence who claimed Cherokee identity without proof or acceptance by the Cherokee nation *

Two Moon Meridas Two Moon Meridas (ca. 1888 – 1933) was an American seller of herbal medicine who claimed that he was of Sioux birth. Early life and education Meridas was born Chico Colon Meridan, son of Chico Meridan and Mary Tumoon, both of whom were born ...

(c. 1888–1933), seller of herbal medicine who claimed that he was of

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota language, Dakota: Help:IPA, /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribes and First Nations in Canada, First Nations peoples in North America. The ...

birth

False royal heritage claims

Maddess Aiort Maddess Aiort (died 1982) was a woman who claimed to be Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia, the second daughter of Nicholas II of Russia. She died in 1982 of a serious disease still unknown. Biography The remains of the members of the Ro ...

claimed to have been

Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia (Tatiana Nikolaevna Romanova; ; – 17 July 1918) was the second daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last monarch of Russia, and of Tsarina Alexandra. She was born at Peterhof Palace, near Saint Peters ...

Granny Alina Granny Alina (died 1969) was the foster grandmother of Gabriel Louis Duval, who claimed in his 2004 book ''A Princess in the Family'' that she might have been Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia. (however photos of Granny Alina depict he ...

claimed to have been

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (Maria Nikolaevna Romanova; Russian: Великая Княжна Мария Николаевна, 17 July 1918) was the third daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. He ...

* Michelle Anches claimed to have been Grand Duchess Tatiana of Russia *

Anna Anderson Anna Anderson (born Franziska Schanzkowska, 16 December 1896 – 12 February 1984) was an impostor who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia. Anastasia, the youngest daughter of the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia, Nicholas II an ...

(1896–1984), who may have really believed she was the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, daughter of Tsar

Nicholas II of Russia Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Pola ...

Bardiya Bardiya or Smerdis ( peo, 𐎲𐎼𐎮𐎡𐎹 ; grc, Σμέρδις ; possibly died 522 BC), also named as Tanyoxarces ( grc, Τανυοξάρκης ) by Ctesias, was a son of Cyrus the Great and the younger brother of Cambyses II, both ...

(d. 522 BC), ancient ruler of Persia, widely regarded as genuine but was claimed to be an imposter by his successor *

Mary Baynton Mary Baynton (born approximately 1515) was a woman from England, who claimed to be the Mary I of England, Princess Mary, daughter of Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII and his Wives of Henry VIII, first wife, Catherine of Aragon. She made the c ...

(fl. c.1533), pretended to be Henry VIII's daughter,

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

at a time many considered that her father should be deposed in her favour *

Bhawal case Bhawal Estate was the second largest zamindari in Bengal (in modern-day Bangladesh) until it was abolished according to ''East Bengal State Acquisition and Tenancy Act of 1950''. History In the late 17th century, Daulat Ghazi was the zamind ...

, concerning a "resurrected" Indian prince who may have been genuinely who he was claimed to be *

Natalya Bilikhodze Natalya Petrovna Bilikhodze (russian: Наталья Петровна Билиходзе; 1900–2000) was a Romanov impostor, one of several women to falsely claim that she was Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, who was executed with he ...

(1900–2000), appeared in the year 1995 and went to Russia in the year 2000 where she tried to claim the "Romanov fortune" as Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, daughter of Tsar

. *

Marga Boodts Marga may refer to: People *Marga (Batak), a family name in Batak society * Marga Barbu (1929–2009), Romanian actress * Marga Boodts (1895–1976), woman claimed to be Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia *Marga Gomez (born 1960), Puerto Ric ...

claimed to have been

Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor * Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist * Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper Places * Grand, Oklahoma * Grand, Vosges, village and commu ...

Helga de la Brache Helga de la Brache, née ''Aurora Florentina Magnusson'', (6 September 1817 in Stockholm – 11 January 1885 in Stockholm), was a Swedish con artist. She obtained a royal pension by convincing the authorities that she was the secret legitimate da ...

(1817–1885), claimed to have been the secret legitimate daughter of

Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden Gustav IV Adolf or Gustav IV Adolph (1 November 1778 – 7 February 1837) was King of Sweden from 1792 until he was deposed in a coup in 1809. He was also the last Swedish monarch to be the ruler of Finland. The occupation of Finland in 1808–09 ...

and

Frederica of Baden Princess Frederica Dorothea Wilhelmina of Baden (12 March 1781 – 25 September 1826) was Queen of Sweden from 1797 to 1809 as the consort of King Gustav IV Adolf. Life Early life Frederica of Baden was born in Karlsruhe in the Grand Duchy of Ba ...

. *

Alexis Brimeyer Alex Ceslaw Maurice Jean Brimeyer (4 May 1946 – 27 January 1995) was a pretender who claimed connection to various European thrones. He used fraudulent combined titles such as "Prince d'Anjou Durazzo Durassow Romanoff Dolgorouki de Bourbon-Co ...

(1946–1995), Belgian who claimed connection to various European royal houses *

Mary Carleton Mary Carleton (born ''Mary Moders''; 11 August 1642 – 22 January 1673) was an Englishwoman who used false identities, such as a German princess, to marry and defraud a number of men. Early life Born Mary Moders in Canterbury. According to ...

(1642–1673), who was, amongst other things, a false princess and bigamist *

Count Dante Count Juan Raphael Dante (born John Timothy Keehan; February 2, 1939 – May 25, 1975) was an American martial artist figure during the 1960s and 1970s who claimed he could do extraordinary feats such as Dim Mak. Early career Keehan was born in ...

(1939–1975) is the assumed name of John Keehan, who claimed to be descended from Spanish nobility. In his campaign to promote his system of martial arts, he also claimed victories in various secret deathmatches in Asia, and mercenary activity in Cuba, none of which was proven. * Suzanna Catharina de Graaff (1905–1968), was a Dutch woman who claimed to be the fifth daughter of Nicholas and Alexandra, born in 1903 when Alexandra was reported to have had a "hysterical pregnancy". 3There are no official or private records of Alexandra giving birth to any child at this time. *

Pseudo-Constantine Diogenes Pseudo-Constantine Diogenes or Pseudo-Leo Diogenes (died after 1095) was an unsuccessful pretender to the Byzantine throne against Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Of lowly origin, he pretended to be a son of Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes. Exiled to Chers ...

, pretended to be a son of Byzantine emperor

Romanos IV Diogenes Romanos IV Diogenes (Greek: Ρωμανός Διογένης), Latinized as Romanus IV Diogenes, was a member of the Byzantine military aristocracy who, after his marriage to the widowed empress Eudokia Makrembolitissa, was crowned Byzantine Em ...

False Dmitriy I False Dmitry I ( rus, Лжедмитрий I, Lzhedmitriy I) (or Pseudo-Demetrius I) reigned as the Tsar of Russia from 10 June 1605 until his death on 17 May 1606 under the name of Dmitriy Ivanovich ( rus, Дмитрий Иванович). A ...

(c. 1581 – 1606),

False Dmitriy II False Dmitry II ( rus, Лжедмитрий II, Lzhedmitrii II; died ), historically known as Pseudo-Demetrius II and also called "тушинский вор" ("rebel/criminal of Tushino"), was the second of three pretenders to the Russian throne w ...

(died 1610), and False Dmitriy III (died 1612), who all impersonated the son of

Ivan the Terrible Ivan IV Vasilyevich (russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич; 25 August 1530 – ), commonly known in English as Ivan the Terrible, was the grand prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and the first Tsar of all Russia from 1547 to 1584. Ivan ...

* Harry Domela (1905 – after 1978), who pretended to be an heir to the German throne *

Anna Ekelöf Anna Eleonora Ekelöf (floruit, fl. 1765), was a Swedes, Swedish serial impostor. She committed fraud with a series of false identity, false identities, posing as mamsell, noblewoman, officer, Count and the Gustav III of Sweden, Crown Prince of Swed ...

(fl. 1765), claimed to have been Crown Prince Gustav of Sweden. * Anthony Gignac (1970), falsely took on the identity of Saudi prince Khalid bin Al Saud to entrap victims in investment scams and other schemes, currently serving an 18 year jail sentence *

Michael Goleniewski Michał Franciszek Goleniewski a.k.a. 'SNIPER', 'LAVINIA', (16 August 1922 – 12 July 1993), was a Polish officer in the People's Republic of Poland's Ministry of Public Security, the deputy head of military counterintelligence GZI WP, later hea ...

(1922–1993), was a

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

agent who in the year 1959 claimed to be

Tsarevich Alexei of Russia Alexei Nikolaevich (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Никола́евич) (12 August .S. 30 July1904 – 17 July 1918) was the last Tsesarevich (heir apparent to the throne of the Russian Empire). He was the youngest child and only son of ...

* An author, Michael Gray, (an alias adopted by a Northern Irish teacher) claimed in his book Blood Relative that the Tsarevich escaped with the

Dowager Empress Empress dowager (also dowager empress or empress mother) () is the English language translation of the title given to the mother or widow of a Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese emperor in the Chinese cultural sphere. The title was also g ...

aboard the warship HMS Marlborough in 1919 and later assumed the name Nikolai Chebotarev. In the book, Gray claims he is the son of the Tsarevich and

Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent (27 August 1968), born Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark ( el, Μαρίνα), was a Greek princess by birth and a British princess by marriage. She was a daughter of Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark and ...

, and they had secretly married in the late 1940s. * Anna Gyllander (fl. 1659), claimed to have been

queen Christina of Sweden Christina ( sv, Kristina, 18 December (New Style) 1626 – 19 April 1689), a member of the House of Vasa, was Queen of Sweden in her own right from 1632 until her abdication in 1654. She succeeded her father Gustavus Adolphus upon his death ...

. *

Anatoly Ionov Anatoli Semyonovich Ionov (russian: Анатолий Семёнович Ионов ; May 23, 1939 – May 12, 2019)Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor * Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist * Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper Places * Grand, Oklahoma * Grand, Vosges, village and commu ...

* Tile Kolup (d. 1285), also known as Dietrich Holzschuh, was an impostor who in 1284 began to pretend to be the

Emperor Frederick II Frederick II (German: ''Friedrich''; Italian: ''Federico''; Latin: ''Federicus''; 26 December 1194 – 13 December 1250) was King of Sicily from 1198, King of Germany from 1212, King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor from 1220 and King of Jerusa ...

Eugenio Lascorz Eugenio Lascorz y Labastida (26 March 1886 – 1 June 1962) was a Spanish lawyer who claimed to be a descendant of the medieval Laskaris family (believing his last name ''Lascorz'' to be a corruption of ''Laskaris''), which had ruled the Byzant ...

(1886–1962), who claimed connection to the royal house of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

Terence Francis MacCarthy Terence Francis MacCarthy (born 21 January 1957), formerly self-styled Tadhg V, The MacCarthy Mór, Prince of Desmond and Lord of Kerslawny, is a genealogist, historian, and writer, best known for being a pretender to the Irish chiefly title of ...

(born 1957), styled himself

MacCarthy Mór MacCarthy ( ga, Mac Cárthaigh), also spelled Macarthy, McCarthy or McCarty, is an Irish Irish clans, clan originating from Kingdom of Munster, Munster, an area they ruled during the Middle Ages. It was divided into several great branches; the M ...

and "Prince of Desmond" *

Šćepan Mali Šćepan Mali ( sr-cyr, Шћепан Мали ), translated as Stephen the Little, Stephen the Small or Stephen the Humble, ( – 22 September 1773) was the first and only "tsar" of Montenegro, ruling the country as an absolute monarch from 1768 ...

(d. 1773), who claimed to be Peter III of Russia, and managed to rule Montenegro *

False Margaret False Margaret (or Margareth or Margareta) ( – 1301) was a Norway, Norwegian woman who impersonated Margaret, Maid of Norway. The real Margaret had died in 1290 at Orkney, and her father, Eric II of Norway, King Eric II, died in 1299, succee ...

(c. 1260–1301), who impersonated the Maid of Norway *

Pierre Plantard Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair (born Pierre Athanase Marie Plantard, 18 March 1920 – 3 February 2000) was a French technical drawer, best known for being the principal fabricator of the Priory of Sion hoax, by which he claimed from the 1960 ...

(1920–2000), the mastermind behind the

Priory of Sion The ''Prieuré de Sion'' (), translated as Priory of Sion, was a fraternal organization founded in France in 1956 by Pierre Plantard in his failed attempt to create a prestigious neo-chivalric order. In the 1960s, Plantard began claiming that ...

hoax who claimed to be

Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gauli ...

, a pretender to the throne of France *

Yemelyan Pugachev Yemelyan Ivanovich Pugachev (russian: Емельян Иванович Пугачёв; c. 1742) was an ataman of the Yaik Cossacks who led a great popular insurrection during the reign of Catherine the Great. Pugachev claimed to be Catherine's ...

(c. 1742–1775), who claimed to be Peter III of Russia *

Raiktor Raiktor or Raictor was an Eastern Orthodox monk who assumed the identity of Byzantine Emperor Michael VII. He participated in the Norman campaigns of Robert Guiscard to overthrow the Byzantine Empire. Background By 1081, the Byzantine Empire w ...

(fl. 1081), an Eastern Orthodox monk who assumed the identity of Byzantine Emperor Michael VII *

Frederick Rolfe Frederick William Rolfe (surname pronounced ), better known as Baron Corvo (Italian for "Crow"), and also calling himself Frederick William Serafino Austin Lewis Mary Rolfe (22 July 1860 – 25 October 1913), was an English writer, artist, ph ...

(1860–1913), who is better known as Baron Corvo *

Lambert Simnel Lambert Simnel (c. 1477 – after 1534) was a pretender to the throne of England. In 1487, his claim to be Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, threatened the newly established reign of Henry VII (1485–1509). Simnel became the f ...

(c. 1477 – c. 1525), pretender to the throne of England *

Eugenia Smith Eugenia Smith (January 25, 1899 – January 31, 1997), also known as Eugenia Drabek Smetisko, was one of several Romanov impostors who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, Grand Duchess Anastasia, youngest daughter ...

(1899–1997), another woman who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia *

Charles Stopford Charles Albert Stopford III (born May 1962) is an American imposter who posed as the Earl of Buckingham and lived under the assumed name of Christopher Buckingham for over twenty years. The press dubbed him ‘the real Jackal’ due to his use of ...

claimed to be the

Earl of Buckingham The peerage title Earl of Buckingham was created several times in the Peerage of England. It is not to be confused with the title of Earl of Buckinghamshire. It was first created in 1097 for Walter Giffard, but became extinct in 1164 with the dea ...

Heino Tammet Alexei Tammet-Romanov was the name assumed by Ernest Veermann (died June 26, 1977), an Estonian immigrant to Canada, when he claimed to be the last heir to the throne of Russia, Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia. For many years prior to this ...

claimed to be

. He died in 1977 in Vancouver, Canada. *

Larissa Tudor Larissa Feodorovna Tudor (died July 18, 1926) was the wife of Owen Frederick Morton Tudor, an officer of the 3rd The King's Own Hussars, 3rd (The King's Own) Hussars. Following her death, it was rumoured that she was in truth Grand Duchess Tatian ...

appeared strikingly similar to

but never actually claimed to be the former grand duchess. Many people who knew Larissa strongly suspected that she was the former grand duchess of Russia. *

Nadezhda Vasilyeva Nadezhda Ivanova-Vasilyeva (? – 1971; Cyrillic: Надежда Владимировна Иванова-Васильева) was one of several women who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia. Vasilyeva first surfaced in Sibe ...

, appeared in the 1920s in Russia and claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia. She died in a psychiatric ward in 1971 in Kazan, Russia. *

Perkin Warbeck Perkin Warbeck ( 1474 – 23 November 1499) was a pretender to the English throne claiming to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, who was the second son of Edward IV and one of the so-called "Princes in the Tower". Richard, were he alive, ...

(c. 1474 – 1499), pretender to the throne of England

Fraudsters

Frank Abagnale Frank William Abagnale Jr. (; born April 27, 1948) is an American author and convicted felon. Abagnale targeted individuals and small businesses yet gained notoriety in the late 1970s by claiming a diverse range of victimless workplace frauds, m ...

(born 1948), who passed bad checks as a fake pilot, doctor, and lawyer *

Gerald Barnbaum Gerald Barnbaum (1933 - June 15, 2018), aka "Gerald Barnes", "Jerold C. Barnes", "Jerald C. Barnes" and "Gerald Charles Barnes", was a pharmacist and convicted felon who posed as a physician, medical doctor between 1976 and 2000. Biography Fra ...

(1933–2018), former pharmacist who posed as a doctor for over twenty years, assuming the identities of various licensed physicians *

Alessandro Cagliostro Count Alessandro di Cagliostro (, ; 2 June 1743 – 26 August 1795) was the pseudonym, alias of the Italian occultist Giuseppe Balsamo (; in French usually referred to as Joseph Balsamo). Cagliostro was an Italian adventurer and self-styled ...

(1743–1795), Italian adventurer and self-styled magician *

Cassie Chadwick Cassie L. Chadwick (10 October 1857 – 10 October 1907) was the most well-known pseudonym used by Canadian con artist Elizabeth Bigley, who defrauded several American banks out of millions of dollars during the late 1800s and early 1900s by c ...

(1857–1907), who pretended to be

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

's daughter * Ravi Desai, (active 1996-2002), a journalist who posed as Robert Klinger, fictitious

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of BMW's North American division, in a series of articles for ''Slate'' magazine *

Belle Gibson Annabelle Natalie Gibson (born 8 October 1991) is an Australian convicted scammer and pseudoscience advocate. She is the author of ''The Whole Pantry'' mobile app and its later companion cookbook. Throughout her career as a wellness guru, Gibs ...

(born 1991), an Australian alternative wellness advocate who falsely claimed to have survived multiple cancers without using conventional cancer treatments *

David Hampton David Hampton (April 28, 1964 – July 18, 2003) was an American con artist and robber who became infamous in the 1980s after he convinced a group of wealthy Manhattanites to give him money, food, and shelter under the pretense that he was ...

(1964–2003), who pretended to be the son of

Sidney Poitier Sidney Poitier ( ; February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022) was an American actor, film director, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. He received two competitive ...

* Joseph "Harry" Jelinek (1905–1986), who is alleged to have fraudulently sold the

Karlstejn Castle Karlstein may refer to places in: ; Germany: * Karlstein am Main, a municipality in Landkreis Aschaffenburg, Bavaria * part of Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria ** a rock with a ruin there * Karlstein bei Hornberg, a rock in Hornberg, Baden-Württemberg ...

to American industrialists * Brian Kim (born 1975/1976), lived in

Christodora House Christodora House is a historic building located at 143 Avenue B in the East Village/Alphabet City neighborhoods of Manhattan, New York City. It was designed by architect Henry C. Pelton (architect of Riverside Church) in the American Perpend ...

in Manhattan, falsified documents identifying himself as the president-secretary of its condo association, and transferred $435,000 from the association's bank account to his own bank account *

Sante Kimes Sante Kimes (born Sante Singhrs; July 24, 1934 – May 19, 2014) was an American criminal who was convicted of two murders, as well as robbery, forgery, violation of anti-slavery laws, and numerous other crimes. Many of these crimes were comm ...

(1934-2014), impersonated various public figures and was convicted of murdering her own landlady, wealthy socialite Irene Silverman, in an apparent plot to assume Silverman's identity *

Mandla Lamba Mandla Lamba is a South Africa, South African scammer, known for having acquired a fake reputation as the country's "youngest billionaire" and a successful mining tycoon before being exposed. He was arrested on fraud and homicide charges in May ...

, "fake billionaire" from South Africa who received media attention by claiming to be a successful mining tycoon. *

Victor Lustig Victor Lustig (; January 4, 1890 – March 11, 1947) was a highly skilled con artist from Austria-Hungary, who undertook a criminal career that involved conducting scams across Europe and the United States during the early 20th century. Lusti ...

(1890–1947), "The man who sold the Eiffel Tower. Twice." * Richard Allen Minsky (born 1944), who lured women into vulnerable situations by pretending to be people they knew, then lawyers representing them, and then raped them *

Arthur Orton Arthur Orton (20 March 1834 – 1 April 1898) was an English man who has generally been identified by legal historians and commentators as the "Tichborne Claimant", who in two celebrated court cases both fascinated and shocked Victorian soc ...

(1834–1898), also known as the

Tichborne Claimant The Tichborne case was a legal ''cause célèbre'' that captivated Victorian England in the 1860s and 1870s. It concerned the claims by a man sometimes referred to as Thomas Castro or as Arthur Orton, but usually termed "the Claimant", to be t ...

, who claimed to be the missing heir Sir Roger Tichborne *

Paul Palaiologos Tagaris Paul Palaiologos Tagaris ( el, Παῦλος Παλαιολόγος Τάγαρις, – after 1394) was a Byzantine Greek monk and impostor. A scion of the Tagaris family, Paul also claimed a somewhat dubious connection with the Palaiologos dyn ...

(c. 1320/40 – after 1394), Orthodox monk, claimed to be a member of the

Palaiologos The House of Palaiologos ( Palaiologoi; grc-gre, Παλαιολόγος, pl. , female version Palaiologina; grc-gre, Παλαιολογίνα), also found in English-language literature as Palaeologus or Palaeologue, was a Byzantine Greek f ...

dynasty, pretended to be the

Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem , image = , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Coat of arms , abbreviation = , type = , main_classification = , orientation = , scripture = ...

, later succeeded in being named

Latin Patriarch of Constantinople The Latin Patriarchate of Constantinople was an office established as a result of the Fourth Crusade and its conquest of Constantinople in 1204. It was a Roman Catholic replacement for the Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople ...

* Frederick Emerson Peters (1885–1959), U.S. celebrity impersonator and writer of bad checks *

Gert Postel Gert Uwe Postel (born June 18, 1958 in Bremen) is a German impostor, best known for successfully applying several times for public health positions as a medical doctor without ever having received medical education. Gert Postel went to Hauptsc ...

(born 1958), a mail carrier who posed as a medical doctor *

Lobsang Rampa Lobsang Rampa was the pen name of Cyril Henry Hoskin (8 April 1910 – 25 January 1981), an author who wrote books with paranormal and occult themes. His best known work is '' The Third Eye'', published in Britain in 1956. Following the ...

(1910–1981), formerly plumber Cyril Hoskins, who claimed to be possessed by the spirit of a deceased Tibetan

lama Lama (; "chief") is a title for a teacher of the Dharma in Tibetan Buddhism. The name is similar to the Sanskrit term ''guru'', meaning "heavy one", endowed with qualities the student will eventually embody. The Tibetan word "lama" means "hi ...

and wrote a number of books based on that premise * James Reavis (1843–1914), master forger who used his real name but created a complex, fictitious history that pointed to him as the rightful owner of much of

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

Anna Sorokin Anna Sorokin (russian: Анна Сорокина; born January 23, 1991), also known as Anna Delvey, is a con artist and fraudster who posed as a wealthy heiress to access the upper echelons of the New York social and art scenes from 2013 to ...

(born 1991), posed as a fictitious wealthy heiress to fraudulently obtain loans, luxury goods, travel, and stays at exclusive hotels * Leander Tomarkin (1895–1967), fake doctor who became the personal physician of

Victor Emmanuel III of Italy Victor Emmanuel III (Vittorio Emanuele Ferdinando Maria Gennaro di Savoia; 11 November 1869 – 28 December 1947) was King of Italy from 29 July 1900 until his abdication on 9 May 1946. He also reigned as Emperor of Ethiopia (1936–1941) and K ...

, and convinced

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

to assume the honorary presidency of one of his medical conferences

Wartime impostors and spies

Many women in history have presented themselves as men in order to advance in typically male-dominated fields. There are many documented cases of this in the military during the American Civil War. However their purpose was rarely for fraudulent gain. They are listed in the

List of wartime cross-dressers Wartime may refer to: * Wartime, Saskatchewan, a small community in Saskatchewan, Canada * Wartime, a formal state of war, as opposed to peacetime * ''Wartime'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film spin-off of the TV series ''Doctor Who'' * ''Wart ...

. Spies have often pretended to be people other than they were. One of the famous was

Chevalier d'Eon Chevalier may refer to: Honours Belgium * a rank in the Belgian Order of the Crown (Belgium), Order of the Crown * a rank in the Belgian Order of Leopold (Belgium), Order of Leopold * a rank in the Belgian Order of Leopold II * a title in the Be ...

(1728–1810), a French diplomat who successfully infiltrated the court of Empress Elizabeth of Russia by presenting as a woman.

Military impostors

Historically, when military record-keeping was less accurate than today, some persons—primarily men—falsely claimed to be war veterans to obtain military pensions. Most did not make extravagant claims, because they were seeking money, not public attention that might expose their fraud. In the modern world, reasons for posing as a member of the military or exaggerating one's service record vary, but the intent is almost always to gain the respect and admiration of others. *

Joseph A. Cafasso Joseph Anthony Cafasso Jr. (born August 2, 1956) is an American former Fox News consultant on military and counterterrorism issues who left the network in 2002 after it was discovered he was a military imposter. Cafasso claimed to have been a r ...

(born 1956), former

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

military analyst who claimed to have been a highly decorated

U.S. Army Special Forces The United States Army Special Forces (SF), colloquially known as the "Green Berets" due to their distinctive service headgear, are a special operations force of the United States Army. The Green Berets are geared towards nine doctrinal m ...

soldier and

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

veteran, but actually served in the army for only 44 days in 1976 *

Brian Dennehy Brian Manion Dennehy (; July 9, 1938 – April 15, 2020) was an American actor of stage, television, and film. He won two Tony Awards, an Olivier Award, and a Golden Globe, and received six Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Dennehy had roles in ...

(1938–2020), American actor who enlisted in the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

in 1958, served in Okinawa, and never saw combat, but later falsely claimed to have been wounded in action in the Vietnam War *

George Dupre George Dupre (1903–1982) was a Canadian man who falsely claimed to have been a Special Operations Executive operative during World War II. In 1953, Quentin Reynolds, an ex- war correspondent, had written a book ''The Man Who Wouldn't Talk'' ...

(1903–1982), who claimed that he worked for the

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

(SOE) and the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

(WWII); Dupre served in World War II, but he was never in France, nor with the SOE *

Frank Dux Frank William Dux (; born April 6, 1956) is a Canadian-American martial artist and fight choreographer. According to Dux, a ninjutsu expert named Senzo Tanaka trained him as a ninja when he was a teenager. He established his own school of ninju ...

(born 1956), Canadian-American martial artist who served in the

United States Marine Corps Reserve The Marine Forces Reserve (MARFORRES or MFR), also known as the United States Marine Corps Reserve (USMCR) and the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve, is the reserve force of the United States Marine Corps. It is the largest command, by assigned pe ...

in non-combat roles, but claimed in his memoir ''

The Secret Man ''The Secret Man'' is a 1917 American silent Western film, directed by John Ford and featuring Harry Carey. Two of the five reels of the film survive at the Library of Congress film archive. Plot As described in a film magazine, Cheyenne Harr ...

'' that he had fought in covert

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

(CIA)

special operations Special operations (S.O.) are military activities conducted, according to NATO, by "specially designated, organized, selected, trained, and equipped forces using unconventional techniques and modes of employment". Special operations may include ...

in Southeast Asia, Nicaragua, the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council ...

and the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

; his claims drew a rare public denial from the CIA describing them as "preposterous". *

Joseph Ellis Joseph John-Michael Ellis III (born July 18, 1943) is an American historian whose work focuses on the lives and times of the founders of the United States of America. '' American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson'' won a National Boo ...

(born 1943), American professor and historian who claimed a tour of duty in the Vietnam War, but who actually obtained an academic deferral of service and then taught history at

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

Jack Livesey Jack Edwards Livesey (11 June 1901 – 12 October 1961) was a British film actor. He was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, the son of Sam Livesey, the brother of Barry Livesey, and the cousin and step-brother of Roger Livesey. He died in B ...

(born 1954), British historian, military advisor on film productions, and author who claimed to have a distinguished twenty-year career in the Parachute Regiment, but actually served as a cook in the

Army Catering Corps The Army Catering Corps (ACC) was a corps of the British Army, responsible for the feeding of all Army units. It was formed in 1941 and amalgamated into the Royal Logistic Corps in 1993. History In 1938 Leslie Hore-Belisha, the Secretary of St ...

for three years *

Jesse Macbeth Jesse Adam Al-Zaid (born March 21, 1984; name changed from Jesse Adam Macbeth in 1986) is an American anti-war protester, author, and military imposter, who was convicted of falsely claiming to be an Army Ranger and veteran of the Iraq War. In al ...

(born 1984),

anti-war activist An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to ...

who claimed to be a

United States Army Ranger United States Army Rangers, according to the US Army's definition, are personnel, past or present, in any unit that has the official designation "Ranger". The term is commonly used to include graduates of the US Army Ranger School, even if t ...

and veteran of the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

, but was actually discharged from the army before completing basic training *

Joseph McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visi ...

(1908–1957),

U.S. senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

who served in the Marine Corps during World War II as a

Douglas SBD Dauntless The Douglas SBD Dauntless is a World War II American naval scout plane and dive bomber that was manufactured by Douglas Aircraft from 1940 through 1944. The SBD ("Scout Bomber Douglas") was the United States Navy's main carrier-based scout/div ...

tail gunner; broadly embellished his military accomplishments, notably by exaggerating his number of combat missions flown, falsifying official records to reflect these claims, obtaining combat decorations based on the falsified documents, and claiming that he broke his leg in action when the injury was sustained in a non-combat stairwell fall *

Alan Mcilwraith Alan Mcilwraith (born 3 March 1978) is a Scottish former call centre worker from Glasgow who was exposed as a military impostor by a tabloid newspaper after he passed himself off as a much-decorated British Army officer. He convinced a number ...

(born 1978), a

call centre A call centre ( Commonwealth spelling) or call center (American spelling; see spelling differences) is a managed capability that can be centralised or remote that is used for receiving or transmitting a large volume of enquiries by telephone. ...

worker from

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

who, among other things, claimed that he was a decorated captain in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

; he never served in the military * Eric von Stroheim, film director (''The Merry Widow'', 1925) and actor (''Sunset Boulevard'', 1950), who claimed to have been an Austrian imperial military officer, but never served in the military. He did portray German officers on-screen. * Friedrich Wilhelm Voigt (1849–1922), German impostor who masqueraded as a Prussian officer in 1906 and became famous as "The Captain of Köpenick" *

Micah Wright Micah Ian War Dog Wright (born 1969) is an American writer who has worked in film, television, animation, video games and comic books. He is an enrolled member of the Muscogee Creek Nation. Early life Wright was born in Lubbock, Texas. He gradu ...

(born 1974), anti-war activist who claimed to have been an Army Ranger involved in the

United States invasion of Panama The United States invasion of Panama, codenamed Operation Just Cause, lasted over a month between mid-December 1989 and late January 1990. It occurred during the administration of President George H. W. Bush and ten years after the Torrijos– ...

and several special operations; he was a

Reserve Officers' Training Corps The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. Overview While ROTC graduate officers serve in all ...

student in college, but never served in the military

Multiple impostors

Frédéric Bourdin Frédéric Pierre Bourdin (born 13 June 1974)Mick Brown''The Daily Telegraph'', 11 August 2012. is a French serial impostor the press has nicknamed "The Chameleon". He began his impersonations as a child and claims to have assumed at least 500 fa ...

(born 1974), "the French Chameleon"Laura Plitt, producer
"Frederic Bourdin – the man who changed his identity 500 times,"

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

, 19 October 2012. *

Barry Bremen Barry Bremen (June 30, 1947Lynch, EamonRetrieved July 17, 2008. – June 30, 2011) was a West Bloomfield, Michigan, insuranceKenyon, J. Michael"Real action in '79 was outside the lines," ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (July 6, 2001).Retrieved July ...

(1947–2011), known in the sports world as "The Great Imposter", after pretending to be an

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

umpire, an

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

All-Star, and a

Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (sometimes initialized as DCC, and officially nicknamed "America's Sweethearts") are the National Football League cheerleading squad representing the Dallas Cowboys team. History 1960s During a game between the C ...

, among other things *

Ferdinand Waldo Demara Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr. (1921 – June 7, 1982) was an American impostor. He was the subject of a movie: ''The Great Impostor'', in which he was played by Tony Curtis. Demara's impersonations included a naval surgeon, a civil engin ...

(1921–1982), "The Great Impostor", who masqueraded as many people, from monks to surgeons to prison wardens *

Christian Gerhartsreiter Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter (born February 21, 1961) is a German convicted murderer and impostor. Born in West Germany, he is currently serving a prison sentence in the U.S. state of California. After moving to the U.S. in his late teens, Gerh ...

(born 1961), a serial impostor and convicted murderer who infamously posed as a member of the Rockefeller family and became the subject of several books *

Marvin Hewitt Marvin Hewitt (born 1922) was an American impostor who became, among other things, a university physics professor. Hewitt was a high school drop-out with no qualifications who wanted to become an academic. He always used names and identities of rea ...

(born 1922), who impersonated several academics and became a university physics professor * Stanley Clifford Weyman (1890–1960), American multiple impostor who impersonated public officials, including the U.S. Secretary of State and various military officers *

Laurel Rose Willson Laurel Rose Willson (August 18, 1941 – April 8, 2002) was an American con artist. She authored books alleging Satanic ritual abuse (SRA), and later assumed the guise of a Holocaust survivor. Early life Willson was born in Tacoma, Washington ...

(1941–2002), who claimed to be "Lauren Stratford", a victim of

satanic ritual abuse The Satanic panic is a moral panic consisting of over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse (SRA, sometimes known as ritual abuse, ritualistic abuse, organized abuse, or sadistic ritual abuse) starting in the United States in th ...

, and later as

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

survivor "Laura Grabowski" * Mamoru Samuragochi (born 1963), who claimed to be a "deaf composer", though it was later revealed that his hearing ability has already improved and most of his works were written by

Takashi Niigaki is a Japanese composer and music teacher, known for having composed pieces on behalf of the celebrated allegedly-deaf composer Mamoru Samuragochi, and for admitting his role in this deception in 2014 prior to the use of one of his pieces at the ...

, conductor of "Onimusha Soundtrack", produced by Samuragouchi.

Others

Bampfylde Moore Carew Bampfylde Moore Carew (1690-1758) was an English rogue, vagabond and impostor, who claimed to be King of the Beggars. Life Baptized at Bickleigh, Devon, on 23 September 1690, Bampfylde Moore Carew was the son of Reverend Theodore Carew, recto ...

(1693–1759), a

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

shire man whose popular ''Life and Adventures'' included

picaresque The picaresque novel (Spanish: ''picaresca'', from ''pícaro'', for " rogue" or "rascal") is a genre of prose fiction. It depicts the adventures of a roguish, but "appealing hero", usually of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corrup ...

episodes of

vagabond Vagrancy is the condition of homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants (also known as bums, vagabonds, rogues, tramps or drifters) usually live in poverty and support themselves by begging, scavenging, petty theft, temporar ...

life, including his claim to have been elected King of the Beggars * Alan Conway (1934–1998), who impersonated

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...

during the early 1990s *

Misha Defonseca Misha Defonseca (born Monique de Wael) is a Belgian-born impostor and the author of a fraudulent Holocaust memoir titled '' Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years'', first published in 1997 and at that time professed to be a true memoir. It beca ...

(born 1937) Belgian Catholic woman who took the identity of a Jewish Holocaust survivor *

Alicia Esteve Head Alicia Esteve Head ( , ; born July 31, 1973) is a Spanish woman who claimed to be a survivor of September 11 attacks, the attacks on the World Trade Center (1973–2001), World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, under the name Tania Head. She j ...

(born 1973), Spanish woman who claimed to be a survivor of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

, under the name Tania Head. *

James Frey James Frey (born September 12, 1969) is an American writer and businessman. His first two books, ''A Million Little Pieces'' (2003) and ''My Friend Leonard'' (2005), were bestsellers marketed as memoirs. Large parts of the stories were later fo ...

(born 1969) American writer who presented himself as a reformed convict and drug addict, who in actuality had no criminal record * Martin Gray (1921–2016), Polish Jew who falsely claimed to have been imprisoned in

Treblinka extermination camp Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...

Kaspar Hauser Kaspar Hauser (30 April 1812 – 17 December 1833) was a German youth who claimed to have grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell. Hauser's claims, and his subsequent death from a stab wound to his left breast, sparked much debate an ...

(1812–1833), German youth who claimed to have grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell *

Robert Hendy-Freegard Robert Hendy-Freegard (born Robert Freegard, 1 March 1971) is a British convicted confidence trick, conman and impostor who masqueraded as an MI5 agent while working as a barman and car salesman. He is also known as David Hendy and David Clifto ...

(born 1971), English barman, car salesman and conman who masqueraded as a

MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Go ...

agent. *

James Hogue James Arthur Hogue (born October 22, 1959) is an American impostor who most famously entered Princeton University by posing as a self-taught orphan. Early life Hogue was raised in a working-class family in Kansas City, Kansas, and graduated fro ...

(born 1959), who entered

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

by posing as a self-taught orphan *

Paul Jordan-Smith Paul Jordan-Smith (April 19, 1885 – June 17, 1971) was an American Universalist minister who also worked as a writer, lecturer and editor. Academically, he is regarded as one of the foremost authorities on the 17th-century British author an ...

(1885–1971), father of the hoax art movement called

Disumbrationism Disumbrationism was a hoax masquerading as an art movement An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a specific period of time, (usually a few months, years o ...

Rahul Ligma Rahul Ligma is a fictional fired Twitter employee, a character played by one of a pair of amateur improvisational actors that pranked multiple major media outlets on October 28, 2022. The spontaneous and intentionally transparent hoax was reveale ...

, who pretended to be a fired

employee, pranking major media outlets in 2022 *

Enric Marco Enric Marco (12 April 1921 – 21 May 2022) was a Catalonian impostor who claimed to have been a prisoner in Nazi German concentration camps Mauthausen and Flossenbürg in World War II. He was awarded the Creu de Sant Jordi by the Catalan governm ...

(born 1921), Spaniard who claimed to have been a prisoner in the Nazi German concentration camps Mauthausen and Flossenburg in World War II. * Brian MacKinnon (born c. 1963), who at the age of thirty attended

Bearsden Academy Bearsden Academy is a non-denominational, state school, state secondary school in Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. History Bearsden Cross site (1911–1958) In 1911, the school was situated on the corner of A808 road (Great Britain), R ...

by posing as a teenager *

Rosemarie Pence Rosemarie Pence (formerly Hannah Pence; born 1938) is a German-American woman who posed as a child Holocaust survivor from the Dachau Concentration Camp. Pence became the subject of a fake biography titled '' Hannah: From Dachau to the Olympics ...

(born 1938), American woman who falsely claimed to have been a German Jew imprisoned at

Dachau concentration camp , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

, and told her stories in an authorized biography '' Hannah: From Dachau to the Olympics and Beyond'' * Stephen Rannazzisi (born 1978), American actor and comedian who claimed to be a survivor of the September 11 attacks * Steven Jay Russell (born 1957), who has impersonated judges and a doctor, among others, and is known for escaping from prison multiple times * Arnaud du Tilh (1524–1560), who took the place of

Martin Guerre Martin Guerre, a French peasant of the 16th century, was at the centre of a famous case of imposture. Several years after Martin Guerre had left his wife, child and village, a man claiming to be him appeared. He lived with Guerre's wife and so ...

in the mid-16th century and lived with Guerre's wife and son for three years before being discovered when Guerre returned *

Donald J. Watt Donald Joseph Watt (10 August 1918 – 28 May 2000) was an Australian Army soldier and the author of a literary hoax, a fictitious Holocaust memoir entitled ''Stoker: The Story of an Australian Soldier who Survived Auschwitz-Birkenau'', published i ...

(1918–2000), Australian soldier who claimed to have been a

Sonderkommando ''Sonderkommandos'' (, ''special unit'') were work units made up of German Nazi death camp prisoners. They were composed of prisoners, usually Jews, who were forced, on threat of their own deaths, to aid with the disposal of gas chamber vict ...

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

Binjamin Wilkomirski ''Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood'' is a 1995 book, whose author used the pseudonym Binjamin Wilkomirski, which purports to be a memoir of the Holocaust. It was debunked by Swiss journalist and writer in August 1998. The subsequent di ...

(born 1941), who adopted a constructed identity as a

survivor and published author * Gabriel Wortman (1968–2020), Canadian

denturist A denturist in the United States and Canada, clinical dental technologist in the United Kingdom and Ireland, dental prosthetist in Australia, or a clinical dental technician in New Zealand is a member of the oral health care team and role as p ...

who masqueraded as a police officer and drove a bogus

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

cruiser while perpetrating the

2020 Nova Scotia attacks On April 18 and 19, 2020, Gabriel Wortman committed multiple shootings and set fires at 16 locations in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, killing 22 people and injuring three others before he was shot and killed by the Royal Canadian Mo ...

In fiction

::''See :Fictional impostors''

References

External links

The Fake Warrior Project
POW Network {{Authority control Deception *

Impostors An impostor (also spelled imposter) is a person who pretends to be somebody else, often through means of disguise. Their objective is usually to try to gain financial or social advantages through social engineering, but also often for purposes ...

Notable impostors

False nationality claims

False minority national identity claims

False royal heritage claims

Fraudsters

Wartime impostors and spies

Military impostors

Multiple impostors

Others

In fiction

See also

References

External links