History Main / ForgedMessage

* In ''Film/SilverLode'', Rose and Dolly pressure telegraph operator Paul Herbert into writing a fake telegram response from the legal authorities declaring Ballard's innocence and [=McCarty=]'s guilt, deeming that they don't have time to wait for a genuine reply to resolve the situation (which is getting out of hand). A genuine telegram which indeed confirms this is later received.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pvz_fake_not.png]]]]

* In ''Film/{{Neighbors 2014}}'', the protagonists live next to a frat house which is one strike away from being expelled from their college. The protagonists wait for the fraternity to cause more trouble so they can report them, but they refuse to have any additional parties. The protagonists forge a letter from their college convincing them they are off probation, causing the fraternity to receive a third strike.

* ''WebOriginal/LoomingGaia'': In "A Mage in the Making", Itchy writes a rude and lewd letter to his wife Ginger addressed from "Mistur Oshun" in an attempt to make her hate him. She isn't fooled for a second.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': In "Wherefore Art Thou, Pokemon?", two young Trainers, Emily and Ralph, hate each other even though the Nidorans they own are in love with each other. Misty schemes to write Emily and Ralph each a letter supposedly from each other so that they will fall in love too.

In more recent media, it may take the form of an e-mail or text message.

* ''Manga/CandyCandy'' has [[AlphaBitch Eliza]] writing a fake letter from [[NaiveEverygirl Candy]] to [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Terry]], and another from Terry to Candy, telling them to meet outside their BoardingSchool's dorms at night. [[IdiotBall They both fall for it and go there, despite knowing that the very strict school punishes such things with expulsion]]...

* Anime/{{Boruto}} and his friends once tried getting out of school by having Mitsuki forge an absence excuse note to their teachers. Being somewhat LiteralMinded, Mistuki failed to make the notes convincing in any way, the cincher being that he added [[ReadingStageDirectionsOutLoud a fake cough]] to them.

* ''Comicbook/{{WITCH}}'': When Matt gets sucked into a magic book, leaving the girls to try and cover up his disappearance, which includes writing an e-mail to a friend using his e-mail account, which they gained access to by guessing that his password was [[ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish Will's name]]. Peter, the one they send it to, realizes something is off, since usually Matt's e-mails are full of typos, and this one, written by Cornelia, was not.

** In a wintertime SundayStrip, Hobbes delivers Calvin a letter apparently written by SantaClaus. It begins by calling Calvin a "rotten little kid" and tells him he has seven days to put himself back on the "good boy" list. Calvin, terrified, reads through the suggestion that he start by being kind to animals, giving them snacks and letting them read his comic books. However, his trust in the letter turns to incredulity and then rage when he sees that it's signed "Santa Claws," and he suddenly recognizes the handwriting as that of the tiger standing next to him all too smugly.

* ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'': Paige once attempted to get out of gym class by faking a note from her dad. The plan failed when the P.E. teacher questioned why a middle-aged man would dot the "i"s of his note with little hearts.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

* In ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'', the plot is kickstarted when Edmund Dantes is betrayed by a forged letter and convicted of a crime he didn't commit. The rest of the story is a RoaringRampageOfRevenge for this.
* In ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'', the culprit sent a letters to all his victims under different names, to trick them into comming to Soldier Island. And going by the first scene of the book, the culprit also sent a fake letter to himself... for some reason...
* In Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Literature/GoingPostal'', con-man Moist von Lipwig secures an immediate reservation for himself and his girlfriend at the poshest and most expensive restaurant in Ankh-Morpork by forging a letter from financier Reacher Gilt. Gilt, a master con-man himself, recognises a worthy opponent by graciously offering to pay their bill...
* ''Literature/BulldogDrummond'': At one point, the villains get hold of Drummond by forging a message from the love interest. One of his sidekicks shows enough Genre Savvy to be suspicious, but Drummond insists, incorrectly, that he knows his girl's handwriting too well to be fooled by a forgery.

* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': In book 16, Jake receives a forged e-mail from Cassie, ostensibly a love letter. He knows full well that it's actually Marco under a false ID, who apparently has a habit of doing this to Jake.

* ''Series/NirvanaInFire'': Xia Jiang and Marquis Xie had someone forge a letter from Nie Feng accusing Prince Qi of treason and asking for rescue.
* On ''Series/DontTrustTheBInApartment23'', James gets a letter each year from his ''Series/DawsonsCreek'' castmates inviting him for a reunion show, which he always rejects. Turns out the letters were actually from Chloe, which she uses as an excuse to get James to do whatever she wanted to cheer him up.

* On the ''Series/{{CSI}}'' / ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' crossover episode, "In Vino Vertias," the kidnappers use Mac Taylor's girlfriend's phone to send fake flirty text messages between her and another man as part of a robbery scheme. Before they realized the sham, the Vegas investigators strongly hinted to Mac that Christine might be cheating on him.

* A text message example in the ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' episode "The Rat Race." The Killer of the Week kidnaps Sherlock and sends Watson a text from his phone so she won't worry. It has the exact opposite result, given that the text [[OutOfCharacterAlert didn't read "like a teenager on a sugar high."]] (This is [[ChekhovsGun in reference to]] an incident in TheTeaser where Watson complains she can't read his texts because he uses too much texting slang.)

* One of the recurring bits on ''Series/WelcomeBackKotter'' was for Epstein to produce a note allegedly from his mother over some issue. Kotter was never fooled as they all ended, "Signed, Epstein's Mother".
* ''Series/{{Cheers}}''
** Carla is upset because her husband Eddie is out of town and didn't remember Valentine's Day, so the guys all pitch in to buy her a flower delivery. She catches on when she sees that the card is signed "Eddie," which [[SomethingTheyWouldNeverSay isn't her husband's real name]].
** In the BalletEpisode Sam forges a letter from the Boston Ballet saying that Diane would've be a perfect fit for their company 10 years ago (which in context should be perfectly acceptable to Diane, since she knows she's "over the hill" to become a ballet dancer). But then she decides to try out anyway and is ''terrible''.

* In a ''Series/HomicideHunter'' episode where Joe Kenda is investigating the disappearance of a high school student, her principal mentions that someone called in sick on the girl's behalf, but he suspected the message was fake--the guy claimed to be her father, but sounded like a teenager. He indicated that this was hardly the first time that students had tried to pull a stunt like this (and it probably frequently happens elsewhere).

* ''Theatre/TwelfthNight'': Maria writes a letter ambiguously making it seem that Olivia is in love with Malvolio, to trick him. OlderThanSteam.

* In ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheUnwoundFuture'', the professor receives a letter dated ten years into the future requesting his help signed by his apprentice, Luke, including an address [[spoiler:which contains a lift to below the tube, where the 'future' has been built and Clive, the guy who really sent the letter, attempts to get revenge on Professor Layton by pretending to be the boy closest to him. There is an actual time machine though]].
* In ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', sending a "tear stained letter" each to both his brothers is how Grey Mann convinced his two brothers to meet and reconcile, so he could reveal himself to them and recruit them to retake [[PassedOverInheritance Mann Co]]. Spending a few minutes with them quickly convinces him to kill them both.

* Attempted by Makoto in ''VideoGame/BlazblueContinuumShift'' in order to prevent Tsubaki from completing her mission of [[spoiler: assassinating Noel, their friend]]. It didn't work because the forged letter was an order from the Imperator, the supreme ruler of the NOL and Makoto's instantly branded a traitor and has to fight Tsubaki. [[spoiler: Both because the letter was written instantly, but also because Tsubaki's order were ''given'' by the Imperator]].

* In ''Webcomic/GeneralProtectionFault'', the night before Nick and Ki's wedding, Ki's counterpart from a parallel universe tricks Nick into using the [=MuTEX=] and kidnaps him, leaving behind a forged DearJohnLetter for Ki. It doesn't work, and the rest of the cast follows him into the other universe to rescue him.

* In one of ''WesternAnimation/TheThreeLittlePigs'' shorts, the Wolf captures two of the pigs and writes a letter to Practical Pig pretending to be from his brothers in an attempt to lure him out. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Practical doesn't fall for it]]: along with the bad penmanship, he recognizes the Wolf's breath when he blows it under the door.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E16BartTheLover Bart the Lover]]", Bart creates a boyfriend for his teacher Mrs Krabappel and writes her letters based on his parents' old loveletters, pretending to be a guy called "Woodrow".
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E20TheBoyWhoKnewTooMuch The Boy Who Knew Too Much]]", he writes a fake note from his mother excusing him from school, with an attempted {{Handwave}} that her handwriting is off because she busted "whichever hand it is I write with".
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E22TrashOfTheTitans Trash of the Titans]]", when the Sanitation Company cuts off their service at the Simpsons' house, Marge gets tired of the garbage pile in her front yard, so she sends the Sanitation Company a letter of apology with Homer's name. Homer is outraged when Marge tells him this. Marge [[HypocriticalHumor points out that Homer has signed her name numerous times]], but Homer claims that his dignity isn't like a loan application or a will.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' one of Shere Khan's executives, Benson, tried to force Louie out of his club by writing a letter that said, "Do whatever Mr. Benson says." and forging Khan's signature, thus making the Khan pilot force think they were on a sanctioned assignment.
* A variant of this happens in ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' episode "Naughty Nautical Neighbors", in which Spongebob and Patrick, at their homes, communicates via speeches in soap bubbles. The noises disturb Squidward (whose house are between the two's) who's eating a cake at the moment. Frustrated, Squidward shakes his fork on the plate, at which point it creates foams (presumably from the cake). Squidward then gets an idea of stopping them: "sap" the communication line by stopping their bubbles mid-flight, and then using his own foam to create speech soap bubbles that are filled with unsavory messages for Spongebob and Patrick (who are unaware that Squidward did it). This drives the two to hate each other for the remainder of the episode. FridgeLogic comes when Squidward's soap bubbles looked different from the normal one, and it's also filled with Squidward's voice and yet they don't recognize the voice.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'', Daffy and Porky [[Main/FeudEpisode get into a feud]] over who ordered the french fries at Pizzaribba. Bugs wants them to make up with each other so he can go to a football game that Porky has the tickets for, so he sends each of them a gift basket and an apology card with each other's names. At first, this seems to work, but then they get back to arguing with each other. When Bugs flat-out admits he wrote the cards and that he doesn't care about their feud and just wants to see the game, Porky snaps and rips up the tickets so none of them can go.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' episode "The Big Blow-Up" concerned Francine and the Brain getting into an argument with each other, which puts a damper on a soccer game that they, along with Arthur and Buster, were partaking in. On the day of the big game, Arthur and Buster both forge fake apology letters to Francine and the Brain, with Buster writing the Brain's apology letter to Francine, and Arthur writing Francine's apology letter to the Brain. [[note]]Arthur and Buster did this specifically because they tried asking The Brain and Francine to write each other apology letters beforehand, but their letters made it sound like they were right and [[TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong each other was wrong]].[[/note]] Because of this, while they do end up accepting each other's apologies, Francine thinks The Brain spelled "Soccer" with two Ks and a Q, and The Brain thinks Francine sent him a list of demands. [[note]]The latter was revealed to have been written on the back of D.W.'s Christmas list, which she wanted Arthur to write seven months early.[[/note]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' episode, "Dexter and Computress Get Mandark!", Dexter and Computress both hate Mandark, so they team up to lure Mandark into Dexter's lab so they can shrink his head with Dexter's ShrinkRay. To lure him there, Dexter writes a love letter with Dee Dee's signature and sends it to Mandark, while Computress writes one with Mandark's signature and sends it to Dee Dee. Since [[AllLoveIsUnrequited Mandark and Dee Dee's relationship is one-sided]], Mandark falls for Dexter's letter while Dee Dee rejects Computress'.
* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'': In "Pierced", the titular duo forge parental permission letters in order to get skull earrings at a store. The crumpled notes simply read "DO IT NOW BUTTHEADS MOM" and "YEAH".
-->'''Woman at the counter:''' Uhh, looks to me like you guys did these yourselves.

* In the ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Doug}} Disney's Doug]]'' episode "Doug Directs", while Roger is forcing his goons to exercise, Willy attempts to get out of it by handing him a note saying, "D-uh, I need to be be ex[[superscript:c]]used - WILLY'S mom". Roger isn't fooled, but Willy quits anyway.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': The ending of [[Recap/TheOwlHouseS1E16EnchantingGromFright "Enchanting Grom Fright"]] reveals that [[spoiler:''someone'' has been clearly sending letters to Luz's mom under the impression that Luz was writing them from summer camp. "Yesterday's Lie" would later reveal that the letters were being sent by a shapeshifting basilisk that was mistaken for Luz by her mother during the events of the first episode and been attending camp in her stead]].
* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': In "Stop Team Go", old enemy Electronique lures the Go siblings into a trap with a set of fake invitations tailored to appeal to each of them (a "Manager of the Year" award for Hego, a "Most Awesome Hero" award for Mego, an invitation to a "Teen Twins Mixer" for the Wegos, and a coupon for a free spa treatment for Shego).