10 Most Infamous UFO and Alien Hoaxes

<h4>Top 10 UFO & Alien Hoaxes</h4>

This is Unveiled, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 UFO & Alien Hoaxes.

For this list, we’ll be looking at infamous alien or UFO encounters that have since been thoroughly (if disappointingly) debunked.

<h4>#10: Crop Circles </h4>

A term coined in the 1980s, crop circles were long held up as proof of aliens visiting our planet. These geometric patterns appear in large fields with no apparent trace of where they came from. Or at least, they did, until the hoaxers came out to take credit for their handiwork. In 1991, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley admitted to having created many of these crop circles using simple tools - just rope, a plank, and a baseball cap with a loop of wire. Since then, crop circles have come to be considered more a fringe form of art than any type of message from the heavens. They may look cool from above, but they’re made right here on Earth.

<h4>#9: The London Mothership & Fleet  </h4>

In June of 2011, video footage was released showing bright objects flying over London. As usual, some believers were quick to jump on the bandwagon and claim these to be genuine UFOs. Why? Well, because … it’s on the internet, we guess? However, the footage isn’t dated and was uploaded anonymously. Furthermore, as experts have pointed out, the “blobs”, or “crafts”, are so small and blurry that they’d be incredibly easy to fake even with rudimentary knowledge of VFX. There’s no additional footage of them either.

<h4>#8: Jerusalem Lights </h4>

2011 sure was a good year for dubious UFO sightings. In February, video footage of a purported UFO over Jerusalem went viral. Much like our previous entry, there’s not much in the way of detail. The dot of light could easily be faked with computer software. According to a report from the HuffPost, one clear sign that the video is in fact a hoax is that nothing else is moving during the entire video. It’s theorized that it was actually made using a still photo with animation drawn on top of it. The Bad UFOs blog also analyzed the video and highlighted several elements giving it away.

<h4>#7: UFO Over India </h4>

In 2016, this viral photo caused a stir on social media. The image seemingly depicted a giant flying saucer hovering over the state of Uttar Pradesh in Northern India. The photo had been uploaded by a mobile device and … well that’s really all we know about the source. Given that there was no other sighting of a massive craft in the air, local authorities did their best to put people’s worries at ease. We’re not sure what makes this less credible: the fact that it looks just like a scene from Independence Day, or that no one else seemed to recall seeing something that giant floating in the sky.

<h4>#6: The Chile Video  </h4>

In 2010, an apparent UFO was caught on camera at a US Air Force base in Chile. It was reportedly only seen on camera after the videographer slowed the footage down and noticed it later. However, when you watch the playback, it’s nothing more than a handful of black dots that seem to appear at random. The clarity of the images is really poor—even by the low standards of UFO sightings. Furthermore, no eyewitnesses reported seeing anything other than the actual planes flying in the air.  Under scrutiny, the footage in the video has been dismissed as likely being little more than minor defects in the video or even bugs in the foreground.

<h4>#5: Aliens Invade Haiti</h4>

Is this video legit? Nope! But at least it’s more creative than most! In 2007, videos of several UFOs floating over Haiti began to appear. Many thought these were some of the best videos of UFOs ever seen. Was this the proof that we’d been looking for? Um, sadly...no. As it turns out, the footage was created as part of some test video for a feature film the original poster had been working on. This was later backed up by film producer Georges Bermann, who worked with the artist who had created the videos. It was just a case of Hollywood special effects accidentally tricking the public. 

<h4>#4: Mexico’s Mulder </h4>

In 2017, Mexican journalist and ufologist Jaime Maussan announced the discovery in Peru of alien mummies. Pretty exciting right? Well, don’t celebrate just yet. Maussan’s first images looked … incredibly contrived, to say the least. However, he participated in a “documentary”, “Unearthing Nazca”, that revealed a more realistic example … found by some guy named “Mario”, apparently. Sadly, based on X-Rays, experts suspect that this is an actual Peruvian mummy who’s been butchered to superficially resemble an extraterrestrial. Maussan has made such false claims before, presenting a photographic slide of a supposedly alien mummy that turned out to be a child in 2015. He’s involved with a website, Gaia.com, that charges a subscription fee for access to content - including about his latest mummy. 

<h4>#3: Dead Alien in Russia</h4>

You decide to go for a stroll through the snowy landscape of eastern Siberia. Suddenly, just below a tree trunk, you find something… unusual. With camera in hand, you take a closer look and are surprised to find what looks like an alien body curled up on the ground. This is the surreal experience that two Russian men had in 2011—or so they wanted people to believe. After racking up millions of views on YouTube, the video began receiving more scrutiny. It’s an impressive-looking hoax, made from what looks like gelatin and raw chicken or some other meat. But who breaks out into laughter when they think they’ve just found an alien? 

<h4>#2: English Spaceship Landings </h4>

We have to give props to these students. They really went out of their way to test how people would react to UFOs. In September of 1967, a series of humming metallic saucers were found in Isle of Sheppey off the coast of England. They were so convincing that local authorities got involved. Police were reportedly fearful, but blew one up and drilled inside another. Soon after, their true origin came out. Apprentices at Farnborough's Royal Aircraft Establishment had created and distributed the objects to see how law enforcement would react. It garnered far more attention than they’d expected, but in the end, their experiment was a success.

<h4>#1: Alien Autopsy Film</h4>

In 1995, Fox television aired a special entitled “Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction”. Hosted by Jonathan Frakes of “Star Trek” The Next Generation” fame, it was allegedly a real video of an alien from Roswell being autopsied. Watched by millions of viewers, the black and white footage became a hot topic in the UFO community. However, in 2006, the filmmaker, Ray Santilli, admitted that the video itself was a fake. However, he claimed it was a recreation of actual footage of an alien autopsy that had become unusable. Of course, the original footage has never been seen nor verified by any credible source.