Let me paint you a picture: you’re scrolling through your feed, minding your business, when you see a post claiming that NASA has confirmed Earth will go completely dark for six days. Or that a rare blue moon will make your phone battery explode. You raise an eyebrow, maybe even laugh, but still… you click. And now you’re 20 minutes deep into some sketchy YouTube video with 5 million views and music that sounds like it belongs in a haunted elevator.
Yep — you’ve just been lured in by an internet hoax. Welcome to the club.
I’ve always been fascinated by the kinds of things people will believe online. And I’m not talking about fake news with a political spin — I mean the full-on, bizarre, “how did anyone fall for this?” level of hoaxes. The ones that are so ridiculous, so clearly fake, and yet… millions of people bought in.
Today, I’m looking back at some of the most infamous, hilarious, and surprisingly effective internet hoaxes that fooled the masses — and what made them so believable in the first place.
1. The “NASA Blackout” Hoax
This one comes around every few years like a seasonal virus. The claim? NASA has confirmed that Earth will experience a “total blackout” for several days due to some galactic event, planetary alignment, or magnetic shift.
I remember seeing this one shared by family members with the kind of urgency usually reserved for natural disasters. One version even said President Obama was “briefed.” The story was completely made up, of course. NASA had to issue an official statement debunking a thing it never said in the first place.
So why did it work? Because it sounded science-y. Throw in a few vague astronomical terms and a government agency, and people panic-share without thinking twice.
2. The Bonsai Kittens Website
Okay, this one’s wild. In the early 2000s, a site called bonsaikitten.com claimed to teach you how to grow kittens in glass jars — molding them into ornamental shapes like living bonsai trees. The images were grotesque (and fake), but people were horrified and believed it was real. Animal rights groups lost their minds. Thousands of complaint emails flooded into MIT, where the site was hosted.
Here’s the twist: it was satire. A dark joke by some students using Photoshop and shock humor. But in an era before Snopes and fact-checking widgets, the internet wasn’t ready for that kind of trolling. The site got taken down, but not before leaving behind a digital scar on early internet culture.
3. The “Facebook Privacy Notice” Copypasta
You’ve probably seen this one more than once: a long paragraph that starts with “I hereby declare…” and claims to protect your Facebook privacy if you post it to your timeline.
I saw people who I know are intelligent post this — and defend it! The idea that you could override Facebook’s privacy policies with a Facebook status update is just… not how anything works. But it looked official. It had fake legal language, all-caps warnings, and an air of importance.
What made it viral was the fear of being watched or losing control of your data. It hit that sweet spot between paranoia and “better safe than sorry.”
4. The Momo Challenge
This one honestly creeped me out the first time I saw it. The story claimed that a terrifying character named Momo — with bulging eyes and a creepy bird-like face — was encouraging kids to hurt themselves through WhatsApp messages and YouTube videos.
The panic spread like wildfire. Schools warned parents. News outlets ran dramatic stories. The only problem? There was no actual evidence the challenge existed in the way it was described. No confirmed injuries. No legitimate source. It was a moral panic built on an image from a Japanese sculpture that had nothing to do with any “challenge.”
But fear travels fast. Especially when it involves kids and the internet.
5. Balloon Boy
This was less of a hoax by the internet, and more a hoax captured by it. In 2009, a couple claimed their six-year-old son had accidentally floated away in a giant homemade helium balloon, launching a nationwide manhunt and massive media coverage.
People watched live, breathless, as the balloon soared across Colorado skies. When it landed… no kid. Turns out the kid had been hiding in the attic the whole time. The parents staged the event hoping to get a reality show deal.
It wasn’t the internet that made this one viral — it was the internet that made it bigger. The footage, the theories, the memes. It was an early taste of what hoaxes could become in the age of instant media.
Why We Fall For It
So, why do these hoaxes work? Simple: they’re emotional. They tap into fear, curiosity, humor, or outrage. They often have just enough truth to make them almost believable. And in a world of infinite scrolling and quick reads, people don’t fact-check — they share.
I’ll admit, even I’ve been fooled once or twice. (Don’t ask me about the time I believed Nicolas Cage was a vampire.)
But hey — that’s part of the fun of the internet, right? It’s chaotic, unpredictable, and full of surprises. And here at Various51, I’ll keep unearthing these digital oddities so we can all laugh, learn, and maybe think twice before reposting the next “breaking news” that claims your phone is spying on your dog.
Stay weird. Stay skeptical.