History Main / ScoobyDooHoax

** In ''The Galloping Ghost'', the Bogg Brothers, a family of criminal brothers, pull one of these at Ms. Mamie's Horseriding Academy by sabotaging the place in a bid to get it shut down so Ms. Mamie can't make her mortgage payment. When Brother Bear, Sister Bear, and their friends form a group to raise money for Ms. Mamie, one of the Bogg Brothers dresses up as the ghost of Billy Beechtree in a last ditch effort to scare them away, but he and his brothers get caught. The ending reveals that they were hired by a real estate development company so they could take over the academy, tear it down, and build a shopping mall.
** In ''The Haunted Lighthouse'' (a chapter book that was also adapted into an episode of the 2003 series), the Bear family goes on vacation to an old defunct lighthouse that's rumored to be haunted, because Papa is very interested in old service buildings. Brother and Sister notice strange things going on, including seeing what looks like the ghost of the old lighthouse keeper Captain Salt, rumored to have disappeared after the lighthouse was taken out of service due to modern technology rendering it obsolete. Their investigation takes them to the hideout of Captain Salt himself, who had been pretending to be a ghost to scare everyone away from the old lighthouse, but once he realizes Brother and Sister Bear find all of his nautical stuff cool, he is more welcoming of the Bear family and tells them his great experiences of being a lighthouse keeper, and is then given the idea to turn the lighthouse into a nautical museum so everyone can see his stuff on display and hear his stories.
** In the Big Chapter Book ''In Maniac Mansion'', a pack of thieves disguise themselves as the ghosts of Bad Bart Grizzly and his men (who, according to family legend, are supposed to be haunting Grizzly Mansion) in order to fool anyone who saw them in the act of carrying out their crimes.
** In the "Bear Scouts" book ''Ghost Versus Ghost'', there's ''three'' of them. First, Ralph Ripoff makes a bet with the Scouts and plans to win it by cheating, dressing up as a ghost to scare them out of the supposedly haunted woods where they're camping. Second, Professor Actual Factual figures out what Ralph is up to and decides to scare ''him'' with a ghost costume of his own. And third, the villains of the book ([[spoiler:the Bogg Brothers]]) dress as a ghost to try and scare them all away from their illegal logging operation.

*** Also zig-zagged in the episode "Haunted House Hang-Up". The heroes spend the episode chasing (and being chased by) one monster, who turns out to just be a man who dressed up to protect his own property from would-be thieves while he searched for a treasure on his property- a treasure that he has a legitimate claim to by birthright. The real criminal, who is indeed after the treasure the owner is protecting, is unmasked at the end.

* ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'' ostensibly features a group of extradimensional monsters called the Elementals as the BigBad, with Mysterio as a soldier from their world and their sworn enemy. In reality, they're elaborate illusions created by Mysterio, a former Stark employee trying to take his old boss's place as Earth's mightiest hero (and kill Nick Fury before he finds out the truth about him).

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "Talking to the Dead", a dealer in stolen goods takes advantage of the reputation of the local woods for being haunted by playing eerie noises to keep the locals away on the nights when his deals go down.

** ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheCyberChase'': Subversion, with Justification: The monsters are the 'same' as those found in many of the [[ContinuityNod early hoaxes]]. But because the cast were in a video game of their own adventures, the monsters weren't people in costumes. Cue NotAMask scare when Scooby Doo tried to unmask one of them after [[LampshadeHanging Lampshading]] the trope. Not to mention that the [[PsychoElectro Phantom Virus]] is a very real threat both in and out of the game.

* The Scooby-Doo type hoax was successfully weaponized by CIA operative Edward Lansdale against Huk insurgency in the Philippines. Utilizing the local population's superstitious fear of vampires,[[note]]Specifically blood-sucking demons known as Aswang in Philippine folklore.[[/note]] government troopers quietly abducted a rebel trooper at night, drain his blood and left a bloodless corpse with "fang marks" to be found. Since the "vampire" activity was strictly limited to rebel areas of operation, this action seriously decreased the local population's support for insurgents, and in some cases forced the rebels to flee in fear. (Though, some have suggested that the Huks weren't actually fooled, but were simply freaked out enough by the American's sheer viciousness to abandon the area.)

* The Scooby-Doo type hoax was successfully weaponized by CIA operative Edward Lansdale against Huk insurgency in the Philippines. Utilizing the local population's superstitious fear of vampires,[[note]]Specifically blood-sucking demons known as Aswang in Philippine folklore.[[/note]] government troopers quietly abducted a rebel trooper at night, drain his blood and left a bloodless corpse with "fang marks" to be found. Since the "vampire" activity was strictly limited to rebel areas of operation, this action seriously decreased the local population's support for insurgents, and in some cases forced the rebels to flee in fear.

* In Creator/LarryNiven's "Night on Mispec Moor", a mercenary assumes the zombie-like creatures chasing him ''must'' be this trope. [[spoiler:[[spoiler:They're TheVirus instead.]]