impostor

Reasons for imposture

Many impostors try to gain financial or social advantages through social engineering or through means of identity theft, but also often for purposes of espionage or undercover law enforcement. Their objective may be one of sexual gratification, giving a false name, false claim of being single or unwed, and/or false age in order to hide adultery, bigamy, or to catfish (e.g. a pedophile pretending to be a youth online).

Those in witness protection, those fleeing abusers or persecution, and criminals evading arrest may also assume a false identity.

Economic migrants may pose as tourists (visitor visas) or as international students (international student visas with a non-accredited university or college). In some countries, such as Canada, students from abroad on educational visas sometimes then present as asylum claimants to obtain residency or citizenship.

Some impostors may do it for pathological reasons, such as having a personality disorder that involves an excessive need for attention and emotional reactions from others (be it praise and/or sympathy), an excessive sense of self-importance or being special, an excessive sense of entitlement, an excessive need to control others, a lack of remorse or emotional empathy, chronic and frequent exaggeration or lying about one’s abilities or life events, and exploitativeness. These psychological conditions may include narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), antisocial personality disorder (psychopathy and sociopathy), Munchausen syndrome (factitious disorder imposed on self) and Munchausen-by-proxy (factitious disorder imposed on another).

According to forensic psychologist Ian Joblin, people who invent extraordinary life stories often do so to overcome feelings of inadequacy. By inventing an identity that embodies qualities admired within their culture, they seek validation, confidence, and influence. Such deceptions usually begin with small exaggerations that expand as they are accepted by others. As the fabricated narrative grows, it evolves to resolve inconsistencies, and the confabulator's insecurity may develop into an inflated sense of power and invulnerability.

People have also posed as others as a hoax or prank, sometimes for amusement, but also for publicity or as part of a protest, sometimes later revealing their true identity.

Notable impostors

False nationality claims

Princess Caraboo (1791–1864), Englishwoman who pretended to be a princess from a fictional island

Korla Pandit (1921–1998), African-American pianist/organist who pretended to be from India

George Psalmanazar (1679–1763), who claimed to be from Taiwan

Micheál Mac Liammóir (1899–1978), notable actor in Ireland, born in England as Alfred Willmore but falsified an Irish birth and identity

False minority national identity claims

H. G. Carrillo (1960–2020), American writer and assistant professor of English at George Washington University who claimed to be a Cuban immigrant despite having been born in Detroit to American parents

Asa Earl Carter (1925–1979), who under the alias of supposedly Cherokee writer Forrest Carter authored several books, including The Education of Little Tree

Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance (1890–1932), an African American who claimed to be the son of a Blackfoot chief

Iron Eyes Cody (1904–1999), Italian American actor (the "crying Indian chief" in the "Keep America Beautiful" public service announcements in the early 1970s), who claimed to be of Cherokee-Cree ancestry

Helen Darville (born 1972), Australian writer who falsely claimed Ukrainian ancestry as part of the basis of her novel The Hand that Signed the Paper about a Ukrainian family who collaborated with Nazis in the Holocaust

Misha Defonseca (born Monique de Wael, 1937) wrote a fraudulent autobiography in which she claimed to be a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, when in fact she has no Jewish descent and was born to Catholic parents. Her book, Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years, received international fame. A documentary, Misha and the Wolves, detailing the investigation into the fraud, was released in 2021.

Rachel Dolezal (born 1977), former president of the NAACP in Spokane, Washington, who claimed African-American heritage despite being born to white parents

Grey Owl (1888–1938), born Archibald Belaney, an Englishman who took on the identity of an Ojibwe

Jamake Highwater (1931–2001), writer and journalist, born Jackie Marks into an Ashkenazi family who later claimed he was a Cherokee American Indian

False royal heritage claims

Count Alexander of Montenegro (d. 1648) claimed to have been a brother of Mehmed III

Maddess Aiort claimed to have been Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia

Granny Alina claimed to have been Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia

Michelle Anches claimed to have been Grand Duchess Tatiana of Russia

Anna Anderson (1896–1984), who may have really believed she was the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia

Bardiya (d. 522 BC), ancient ruler of Persia, widely regarded as genuine but was claimed to be an imposter by his successor

Mary Baynton (fl. c.1533), pretended to be Henry VIII's daughter, Mary at a time many considered that her father should be deposed in her favour

Bhawal case, concerning a "resurrected" Indian prince who may have genuinely believed he was who he claimed to be

Calixtus Ottomanus (d. 1496), alleged half-brother of Mehmed II, he was in contact with Pope Callixtus III and Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I amongst others

Natalya Bilikhodze (1900–2000), appeared in the year 1995 and went to Russia in the year 2000 where she tried to claim the "Romanov fortune" as Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia

Marga Boodts, claimed to have been Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia

Helga de la Brache (1817–1885), claimed to have been the secret legitimate daughter of Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden and Frederica of Baden

Fraudsters

Frank Abagnale (born 1948), who passed bad checks as a fake pilot

Joseph Ady (1770–1852), notorious English impostor and postal fraudster

Gerald Barnbaum (1933–2018), former pharmacist who posed as a doctor for over twenty years, assuming the identities of various licensed physicians

Alessandro Cagliostro (1743–1795), Italian adventurer and self-styled magician

Cassie Chadwick (1857–1907), who pretended to be Andrew Carnegie's daughter

Ravi Desai, (active 1996–2002), a journalist who posed as Robert Klinger, fictitious chief executive officer of BMW's North American division, in a series of articles for Slate magazine

Belle Gibson (born 1991), an Australian alternative wellness advocate who falsely claimed to have survived multiple cancers without using conventional cancer treatments

David Hampton (1964–2003), who pretended to be the son of Sidney Poitier

Joseph "Harry" Jelinek (1905–1986), who is alleged to have fraudulently sold the Karlstejn Castle to American industrialists

Brian Kim (born 1975/1976), lived in Christodora House in Manhattan, falsified documents identifying himself as the president-secretary of its condo association, and transferred $435,000 from the association's bank account to his own bank account

Sante Kimes (1934–2014), impersonated various public figures and was convicted of murdering her own landlady, wealthy socialite Irene Silverman, in an apparent plot to assume Silverman's identity

Military impostors

Joseph A. Cafasso (born 1956), former Fox News military analyst who claimed to have been a highly decorated U.S. Army Special Forces soldier and Vietnam War veteran, but actually served in the army for only 44 days in 1976

Brian Dennehy (1938–2020), American actor who enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1958, served in Okinawa, and never saw combat, but later falsely claimed to have been wounded in action in the Vietnam War

George Dupre (1903–1982), who claimed that he worked for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the French Resistance during World War II (WWII); Dupre served in World War II, but he was never in France, nor with the SOE

Frank Dux (born 1956), Canadian-American martial artist who served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in non-combat roles, but claimed in his memoir The Secret Man that he had fought in covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) special operations in Southeast Asia, Nicaragua, the Iran–Iraq War and the Gulf War; his claims drew a rare public denial from the CIA describing them as "preposterous".

Joseph Ellis (born 1943), American professor and historian who claimed a tour of duty in the Vietnam War, but who actually obtained an academic deferral of service and then taught history at West Point

Jack Livesey (born 1954), British historian, military advisor on film productions, and author who claimed to have a distinguished twenty-year career in the Parachute Regiment, but actually served as a cook in the Army Catering Corps for three years

Jesse Macbeth (born 1984), anti-war activist who claimed to be a United States Army Ranger and veteran of the Iraq War, but was actually discharged from the army before completing basic training

Joseph McCarthy (1908–1957), U.S. senator who served in the Marine Corps during World War II as a Douglas SBD Dauntless tail gunner; broadly embellished his military accomplishments, notably by exaggerating his number of combat missions flown, falsifying official records to reflect these claims, obtaining combat decorations based on the falsified documents, and claiming that he broke his leg in action when the injury was sustained in a non-combat stairwell fall

Multiple impostors

Frédéric Bourdin (born 1974), "the French Chameleon"

Barry Bremen (1947–2011), known in the sports world as "The Great Imposter", after pretending to be an MLB umpire, an NBA All-Star, and a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, among other things

Ferdinand Waldo Demara (1921–1982), "The Great Impostor", who masqueraded as many people, from monks to surgeons to prison wardens

Christian Gerhartsreiter (born 1961), a serial impostor and convicted murderer who infamously posed as a member of the Rockefeller family and became the subject of several books

Marvin Hewitt (1922–1991), who impersonated several academics and became a university physics professor

Stanley Clifford Weyman (1890–1960), American multiple impostor who impersonated public officials, including the U.S. Secretary of State and various military officers

Laurel Rose Willson (1941–2002), who claimed to be "Lauren Stratford", a victim of satanic ritual abuse, and later as Holocaust survivor "Laura Grabowski"

Mamoru Samuragochi (born 1963), who claimed to be a "deaf composer", though it was later revealed that his hearing ability has already improved and most of his works were written by Takashi Niigaki, conductor of "Onimusha Soundtrack", produced by Samuragouchi.

Nicolai Lilin (born 1980), an Italian-Moldovan writer who claimed to be the descendent of a Siberian ethnic group deported by the Soviet Union to Bender, Moldova in the 1930s, despite being of Polish origin and Bender having not been in the USSR at that time. He also claimed to be a veteran of the Second Chechen War, despite his name not appearing in any sources close to the Russian Ministry of Defence.

Hoaxes

There have been a great many notable hoaxes; only a few are listed.

In the Dreadnought hoax, Horace de Vere Cole and members of the Bloomsbury Group, in make-up and costume posing as members of Abyssinian royalty, in 1910 persuaded the Royal Navy to invite them to inspect the fleet and its flagship, the battleship HMS Dreadnought. When the hoax was revealed, de Vere Cole contacted the press and sent newspapers a photograph of the "princes". The group's pacifist views embarrassed the Navy, which was ridiculed, and demanded that Cole be arrested; but the group had broken no laws.

Others

Bampfylde Moore Carew (1693–1759), a Devonshire man whose popular Life and Adventures included picaresque episodes of vagabond life, including his claim to have been elected King of the Beggars

Alan Conway (1934–1998), who impersonated Stanley Kubrick during the early 1990s

Misha Defonseca (born 1937) Belgian Catholic woman who took the identity of a Jewish Holocaust survivor

Alicia Esteve Head (born 1973), Spanish woman who claimed to be a survivor of the September 11 attacks, under the name Tania Head

James Frey (born 1969) American writer who presented himself as a reformed convict and drug addict, who in actuality had no criminal record

Dolly Gray impostor, an unidentified imposter who played for the St. Louis All-Stars and Green Bay Packers during the 1923 National Football League (NFL) season.

Martin Gray (1921–2016), Polish Jew who falsely claimed to have been imprisoned in Treblinka extermination camp

Kaspar Hauser (1812–1833), German youth who claimed to have grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell

Robert Hendy-Freegard (born 1971), English barman, car salesman and conman who masqueraded as a MI5 agent

James Hogue (born 1959), who entered Princeton University by posing as a self-taught orphan

Paul Jordan-Smith (1885–1971), father of the hoax art movement called Disumbrationism

Rahul Ligma, who pretended to be a fired Twitter employee, pranking major media outlets in 2022