Loren Coleman's Top Ten Reasons for Hoaxing Cryptids

When it comes to bigfoot, we know people love to hoax. For us that believe, it's a thorn in our side, and it happens all the time! World famous Cryptozoologist and author, Loren Coleman, dishes out his top ten reasons why people try to pull cryptozoology hoaxes.

My choices for the top ten major reasons that exist for hoaxing in cryptozoology are:

(1) fiscal gain (e.g. allegedly the reason behind a hoaxster’s “Coast to Coast AM” radio appearances was so the guest’s broadcast claims of a “captured Bigfoot” video he said he was going to post online would encourage “subscribers” to pay a fee to “see” it; in the case of the Georgia hoax, allegedly $50,000 was aquired);

(2) fifteen minutes of fame (e.g. the late Ivan Marx, the late Ray Wallace, the Georgia hoaxers, and other members of the hoaxing fraternity appear to have had a psychological need for media-attention, resulting in a temporary sense of celebrity);

3) pranks (i.e., these can be April Fools ~ like John Green’s ~, harmless teen, misguided college or Halloween-style practical jokes that go overboard and become local legends);

(4) spreading misinformation (e.g. when I was doing research for Cryptozoology A to Z, an individual attempted to create an online history of sightings about the so-called “Ozark Howler,” so I would write an entry on them in my forthcoming book; his deception was discovered and not one paragraph exists therein on this fake cryptid);

(5) vandalism (i.e,. some hoaxing appears to be mischief, performed for psychological reasons only known to the creator, to cause disruptions for disruptions’ sake, in a display of misguided behavior in a powerless or mentally unbalanced person; some have called these purely “evil” acts);

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