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• n  something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage
• v  subject to a playful hoax or joke

• Far-fetched as the hoax theory may seem, a 1999 Gallup poll showed that it's comparatively durable: 6% of Americans said they thought the lunar landings were fake, and 5% said they .
• In the latest in a disturbing string of campus fakes, a Princeton student's assault and death threats turn out to have been a hoax.
• On the 40th anniversary of the moon landing or was it just a sinister hoax? PTI looks at 10 of the world's most enduring conspiracy theories.

• fraud
• fraudulence
• dupery
• humbug
• put-on
• pull someone's leg
• play a joke on

News & Articles

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• Bindi Irwin, Steve Irwin's Daughter, Victim of Online Death Hoax
  Bindi Irwin was a victim of an online death hoax. Credit: Justin McManus/Fairfax Media via Getty Images
  June 15, 2013 - US Weekly
• Steve Irwin Daughter Dead? Bindi Irwin Death Hoax Goes Viral (VIDEO)
  Steve Irwin's daughter, Bindi Irwin, has been the victim of a death hoax this week, with news spreading like a wildfire on the Internet that the daughter of the late "Crocodile Hunter" had died.
  June 15, 2013 - The Christian Post
• 'Steve Irwin daughter dies' hoax infuriates Crocodile Hunter fans
  By VERONICA LINARES, UPI.com Bindi Irwin was the latest victim of a death hoax, but this time the media wasn't to blame.
  June 14, 2013 - UPI

Quotes

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• Joaquin Phoenix in International Herald Tribune
  There's not a hoax,Phoenix said. "Might I be ridiculous? Might my career in music be laughable? Yeah, that's possible, but that's certainly not my intention."
• Pranab Mukherjee in FOXNews
  Mukherjee said it was "worrying that a neighboring state might even consider acting on the basis of such a hoax call."
• Nancy Pelosi in CBS News
  Once again, the oilman in the White House is echoing the demands of Big Oil,Pelosi said after the president's remarks on Monday. "The Bush plan is a hoax. It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence."