History Main / ConvenientlyUnverifiableCoverStory

* [[https://news.ansible.uk/a130.html According]] to Creator/FrederikPohl, when Creator/LesterDelRey used to claim that his real name was Ramon Felipe Alvarez-del Rey (or sometimes [[OverlyLongName Ramon Felipe San Juan Mario Silvio Enrico Smith Heartcourt-Brace Sierra y Alvarez del Rey y de los Uerdes]]), he would insist that the reason he had documentation in the name of Leonard Knapp was that his ''actual'' birth documents were "destroyed in the little known great Nebraska forest fire, or the devastating Minnesota earthquake, or whatever it was".

* [[https://news.ansible.uk/a130.html According]] to Creator/FrederikPohl, Creator/LesterDelRey used to claim that his real name was Ramon Felipe Alvarez-del Rey, and the reason he had documentation in the name of Leonard Knapp was that his ''actual'' birth documents were "destroyed in the little known great Nebraska forest fire, or the devastating Minnesota earthquake, or whatever it was".

* In ''Fanfic/{{Recoil}}'' Phir Sē sends Taylor to the past and dumps her in the ocean right next to a pair of yachts that crashed and sank with no survivors. Taylor is pulled from the water and, with a quick claim of amnesia, is assumed to be the sole survivor.
* In order to explain why he wanted to get close to Naruto and his StrongFamilyResemblance in ''[[Fanfic/BlackkatsReverse Reverse]]'', Kurama says that Naruto's mother Kushina was his half-sister. Which no one can deny nor verify since Kushina's home village Uzu was destroyed and Kushina was tip-lipped about her family when alive.

* In ''Literature/TheRollingStones'', when her grandsons need an attorney on Mars, Hazel Stone claims to be entitled to practice law -- something her family had never heard before. When had she been admitted to the bar?

* ''Genocidal Organ'' by Project ITOH. A terrorist sets off a backpack nuke that destroys Sarajevo. This proves useful for an underground movement dedicated to resisting the [[BigBrotherIsWatchingYou all-pervasive surveillance]] that has grown up as a result.

* Syrian (and to a lesser extent, Iraqi) passports have been known to fetch a high price in the black markets due the wars in these countries causing [[ApocalypseHow near-apocalyptic levels]] of destruction. It doesn't help that many foreigners can't tell the difference between Levantine/Syrian dialects of Arabic from, say, Yemeni, Egyptian or Tunisian, not to mention their looks.
** A number of former government, rebel or ISIS fighters have also used the chaos of the war to hide their involvement it atrocities and make a new life for themselves in other countries. Unfortunately, the revelation of such individuals as well as the involvement of some in horrific terrorist attacks in Europe ended up creating a backlash against legitimate refugees who are trying to escape the war.

* On ''Series/{{Ghosts}}'', Lucy claims to be Allison's half-sister with a photograph of their father to prove it. She's really a con artist using a faked photo, figuring Lucy won't notice the World War II fortification in the background is faked. It's a good plan and nearly works...if not for the fact Allison is able to speak to the ghost of a British colonel who was stationed at that very fortification and can relate it's in the wrong spot, unraveling Lucy's scam.

* In order to explain why he wanted to get close to Naruto and his StrongFamilyResemblance in ''[[FanFic/BlackkatsReverse Reverse]]'', Kurama says that Naruto's mother Kushina was his half-sister. Which no one can deny nor verify since Kushina's home village Uzu was destroyed and Kushina was tip-lipped about her family when alive.

* In ''FanFic/ThreeSlytherinMarauders'' Snape and Lucius drop hints that [[spoiler:the young [[LiteralSplitPersonality Tom Riddle]] that came out of the Horcrux diary]] [[LukeYouAreMyFather is Voldemort's son.]] It's such a good lie that they've even got ''Voldemort'' believing it.

** In ''TheOriginalSeries'' novel ''Time Trap'', the Klingons do this repeatedly to surgically-altered agents, giving them false memories to match. Spock figures out the plot when he notices a suspicious number of people in critical positions who are from disaster areas.

* In the [[VideoGame/TelltalesGameOfThrones Telltale's ''Game of Thrones'' series]], Mira's fellow handmaiden Sera claims to be a member of a house that has allegedly been extinct for almost two hundred years in order to hide the fact that she's actually the illegitimate daughter of one of Lady Olenna's former handmaidens. Tarwick, the lord that she ends up betrothed to, will question Mira about Sera's parentage, and the player gets the choice of backing up Sera's lie in order to secure her marriage and future or revealing the truth to Tarwick and driving him to break off their engagement.

* Subverted in the ''Symphony of the Sword'' subseries of ''Fanfic/UndocumentedFeatures'': [[Manga/RevolutionaryGirlUtena Utena Tenjou]] and those of her friends from [[Manga/MagicKnightRayearth Cephiro]] who make it to Midgard are given elaborately detailed and otherwise ''genuine'' identities by Gryphon and [=MegaZone=], who are for all practical purposes the legitimate government of Zeta Cygni.

* ''Film/ReservoirDogs'' has this with [[spoiler:Mr Orange]]. The made-up cover incident in question is referred to as "the commode story". Played with in that the story wasn't exactly ''crucial'' to his ruse so much as it was flavor to give it a hint of authenticity.

* In ''Series/KyleXY'', Kyle is given a plausible backstory for his lack of memories, intelligence and absence of a navel. His female counterpart, Jessi, however, is given false memories because an agent for a CorruptCorporateExecutive finds her first.

** The discovery of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Chapman Anna Chapman]] (Anna Kushchyenko) and [[http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/19/us/russian-spies-united-states-declassified/index.html Richard and Cynthia Murphy]] (Vladimir and Lydia Guryev) should give you plenty of ParanoiaFuel for some time. [[SarcasmMode Have fun sleeping, sucker!]]

* In ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}, Jesse is in a small Texas town and meets Gunther Hahn, who nonchalantly claims to have come to America as a Nazi spy. He relates that in 1943, the death of his pilot brother made him realize the war was lost so conned his way to come to America as a "spy" to hide out. He and Jesse hit it off as friends with Gunther talking about loving America. But at the story's end, Jesse coldly confronts Gunther with a book on German pilots revealing [[spoiler: the real Gunther Hahn was killed in combat. He also discovered that "Mark van der Pol" entered the U.S. in 1946, three years after he claimed he did. "Gunther" is really Siegfried Vechtel, a former member of the vicious Nazi police battalions. He managed to escape being arrested for his crimes and fled to America. He explains he used the Hahn name in a book to make his story sound more legitimate as surely no one would have ever found out...unless the lawyer for the local businessman was a Nazi herself who had a book all about German fighter pilots]]. He claims he's [[BecomingTheMask truly changed and loved America]] but [[spoiler: Jesse gives him a "choice" of suicide or exposing him to the town. Vechtel chooses the former.]]

* During the onset of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the Red Army had units claiming to be Polish so as to avoid the fact that they really wanted to take over Poland. The Russians pretending to be Polish would claim to be from Polish villages that had been wiped out by the Germans.
** While not exactly following the example, at least in jokes [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Rokossovsky Rokossovsky]], an ethnic Pole heavily assimilated into Russian culture, was not considered Polish. Like "during nomination on Polish Minister of National Defence foreign journalist asks "How is it possible that person taking such office speaks Polish so badly?" "I'm surprised he speaks Polish"".
*** Despite rising to the pinnacle of the Red Army, that was a common theme in Rokossovsky's life. As he himself said, "In Russia, they say I'm a Pole, in Poland they call me Russian," after having become the Polish defense minister.

** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' novel: it's explained that Tuvok is able to infiltrate the Maquis by making a false cover story of how his family was killed by Cardassians on a border planet. He further endears himself to them by giving up a Starfleet Intelligence operative and putting a big hole in the ''Hood'' (but not killing anyone) when all was said and done.

** In the ''Literature/TalesOfDunkAndEgg'' prequel short stories, it's implied that the titular Ser Duncan the Tall's story of being Knighted by his now deceased Hedge Knight Master on his deathbed may have been a lie; with Duncan as the only witness to his death, and all.

* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' had [[TomatoInTheMirror Sharon "Boomer" Valerii]], whose "family" perished in a notorious mining accident on Troy. She believed it, and even kept pictures of it [[BrokenMasquerade post tomato]] for a while.

* In the ''[[VideoGame/TelltalesGameOfThrones Telltale's Game of Thrones series]]'', Mira's fellow handmaiden Sera claims to be a member of a house that has allegedly been extinct for almost two hundred years in order to hide the fact that she's actually the illegitimate daughter of one of Lady Olenna's former handmaidens. Tarwick, the lord that she ends up betrothed to, will question Mira about Sera's parentage, and the player gets the choice of backing up Sera's lie in order to secure her marriage and future or revealing the truth to Tarwick and driving him to break off their engagement.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. Seska explains her AlienBlood as coming from a bone-marrow transplant from a sympathetic Cardassian after she caught a disease in a Bajoran refugee camp. As they're stranded on the other side of the galaxy, Chakotay has no means of verifying this. However the Doctor can verify that this explanation doesn't explain her BizarreAlienBiology. Seska turns out to be a Cardassian DeepCoverAgent subjected to surgery to make her look Bajoran, at least on the outside.

* A little bit of how TheMole wormed his way into LaResistance in ''VideoGame/FreedomFighters'': [[spoiler:Colonel Bulba was able to disguise himself as Mr. Jones by claiming to have previously worked on Wall Street before the Soviets came in, and the financial offices of Lower Manhattan would logically be under some of the tightest security by the occupying Soviet forces.]]