History Main / MasqueradingAsTheUnseen

* ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption'': Andy Dufresne launders Warden Norton's money with the InventedIndividual "Randall Stephens" across several local banks. In the end, after he escapes Shawshank, Andy goes to the banks and withdraws all the money for himself to start a new life [[TheDogBitesBack and as payback for years of Norton's mistreatment]].

* ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption'': Andy Dufresne launders Warden Norton's money with the InventedIndividual "Randall Stephens" across several local banks. In the end, after he escapes Shawshank, Dufresne goes to the banks and withdraws all the money for himself to start a new life [[TheDogBitesBack and as payback for years of Norton's mistreatment]].

* ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption'': Andy Dufresne launders Warden Norton's money with the InventedIndividual "Randall Stephens" across several local banks. In the end, after he escapes Shawshank, Dufresne goes to the banks and withdraws all the money for himself to start a new life [[TheDogBitesBack and as payback for years of Norton's mistreatment][.

** In ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'' M tells Bond that no one knows what Scaramanga looks like. Later Bond assumes that when Hai Fat hired Scaramanga they never met. He decides to meet Hai Fat while posing as Scaramanga. [[SubvertedTrope It turns out Hai Fat]] ''[[SubvertedTrope had]]'' [[SubvertedTrope met Scaramanga and knew Bond was an imposter]].

** In ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'' M tells Bond that no one knows what Scaramanga looks like. Later Bond assumes that when Hai Fat hired Scaramanga they never met. He decides to meet Hai Fat while posing as Scaramanga. It turns out Hai Fat ''had'' met Scaramanga and knew Bond was an imposter.

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Medabots}}'' anime, Ikke and Koji are expected to represent Japan in an international Robattle tournament alongside Space Medafighter X, but X never turns up for any of the matches. To avoid disqualification, they have their friends dress as X and substitute for him, which works because the only thing anyone knows about Space Medafighter X is that his true identity is a mystery and he always wears a mask.

* ''Film/IronMan3'' has a variation of this with [[spoiler:the Mandarin]].

* ''Series/{{Snowpiercer}}'': The train's head, Mr. Wilson, is a case of NoOneSeesTheBoss. Due to a FirstEpisodeTwist concerning him, the IdentityImpersonator variant of this trope ends up happening within the first few episodes of the series.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'':

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'', "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E122Steel Steel]]". When Maxo breaks down just before the heavyweight match, "Steel" muses that only the manager and his assistant have actually seen himself and Mr. Pole and that the audience hasn't seen a B2 boxing robot in years — meaning they might not know the difference if he disguises himself as Maxo and goes through with the bout.

** His first rogue's gallery villain is The Chameleon. He pretends to be Spider-Man (using a mask on top of his usual mask) in order to frame Spidey for stealing plans for a missile.

* There was a storyline early in ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'' where Foggy Nelson claimed he was the Man Without Fear to impress Karen Page. This led to Melvin Potter/the Gladiator targeting him in the belief he really was Daredevil, although Nelson got his DD costume from Potter's costume shop.
* ''Franchise/SpiderMan''
** Many LegacyCharacter villains trade on the reputation of their predecessors, most notably the various Hobgoblins (which is part of the in-universe explanation for the confusion as to who the original Hobgoblin actually was) and the second and third Mysterios. Roderick Kingsley, the original Hobgoblin, eventually monetised this, creating villain identities, and, after a period of using his super-powers to build a mystique, leasing out those identities to criminals who wanted an instant rep. Before that, he had killed the fourth Hobgoblin for tarnishing the Hobgoblin reputation.
** His first rogue's gallery villain is The Chameleon. He pretends to be Spider-Man (using a mask on top of his usual mask) in order to frame Spidey for stealing plans for a missile.
** In another ''Spider-Man'' story, Peter Parker comes across a diner where Spider-Man comes in every night and gets free food, because Spider-Man once saved the owner from a robbery. Parker can't [[ConfrontingYourImposter call the impostor out on it]] without giving away his own secret identity.
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':
** In older comics, Bruce would sometimes have Franchise/{{Superman}} or even Alfred wear the cowl if he had to be in two places at once. Superman might also ask Bruce Wayne to pose as Clark in similar situations.

* ''ComicBook/GreenManor'' played with this once with an unseen serial killer named John Smith who appeared to have no consistent motive or method of any kind, save for leaving signed notes near his victims promising to kill again. The detective investigating the case eventually works out John Smith never existed in the first place; once the name became public every murderer independently decided to use the increasingly infamous identity to cover their own actions.

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind'': The boss of the Passione mob, Diavolo, is heavily paranoid about ''anyone'' knowing even the slightest bit of personal information about him. In the side story, ''LightNovel/PurpleHazeFeedback'', we learn that following Diavolo's defeat Giorno Giovanna has essentially assumed his identity, behaving as if he's been the boss all along with no one the wiser. Those not in the know find it perfectly reasonable that Giorno would've concealed his identity for years because his youth would've made it difficult for older Mafioso to take him seriously.

* ''ComicBook/GreenManor'' played with this once with an unseen serial killer named John Smith who appeared to have no consistent motif or method of any kind, save for leaving signed notes near his victims promising to kill again. The detective investigating the case eventually works out John Smith never existed in the first place; every murder after the first were entirely unrelated incidents where the killers used the increasingly infamous identity of John Smith to cover their own actions.

* In ''Literature/{{Maskerade}}'', the Opera Ghost, a mysterious masked patron of the Ankh-Morpork opera house, apparently turns nasty and starts attacking people. Granny Weatherwax realizes the truth, and has a few choice words to say about people assuming that every masked man in evening dress who's been sighted in the opera house is the same man.
-->Life isn't neat! Whoever said there's only one Ghost?

* ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex''. When the Laughing Man first appeared in public he arranged for his face to be effectively invisible so no one knows what he looks like. In the episode "C: The Other Side of Good and Evil - EQUINOX" the Laughing Man (with his face mostly covered) meets with Ernest Serano and they talk about the conspiracy. At the end of the episode it's revealed that the Laughing Man is actually [[spoiler:Major Kusanagi]] in disguise in order to trick Serano into revealing information.

* In ''The Icarus Agenda'' by Creator/RobertLudlum, the protagonist is called on to infiltrate a terrorist cell by impersonating a notorious and reclusive terrorist mastermind, counting on the likelihood that the members of the cell don't have any more idea what he looks like than US intelligence does. The one thing US intelligence ''does'' know is that he has a distinctive tattoo, but there isn't time to replicate it so the protagonist just has to hope the cell's leaders won't insist on having a look at where the tattoo should be. [[spoiler:They do insist on having a look -- and then accept him as the genuine article because he ''doesn't'' have the tattoo, which it turns out is a false rumor the mastermind deliberately had leaked so that imposters would give themselves away.]]

* ''Podcast/BlackJackJustice'': In "The Trouble with Doubles", Jack and Trixie's current client, Simon Cale. is the son of the black sheep of a well-to-do Florida family who suddenly wanted to reconnect after Cale became the sole inheritor of the family fortune. Cale wanted nothing to do with them, and hired Jack to pose as him for a family reunion. Jack's resemblence to Cale begins and ends at a similar height and build, but the Cale family didn't know that. In fact, they are so convinced Jack is Cale that, when they hire a hitman to take "Simon" out so the family fortune could come home, the assassin guns for Jack and, later, when he ''does'' shoot Cale, he doesn't finish the job because he thinks he got the wrong man.

* ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureVentoAureo'': The boss of the Passione mob, Diavolo, is heavily paranoid about ''anyone'' knowing even the slightest bit of personal information about him. In the side story, ''LightNovel/PurpleHazeFeedback'', we learn that following Diavolo's defeat Giorno Giovanna has essentially assumed his identity, behaving as if he's been the boss all along with no one the wiser. Those not in the know find it perfectly reasonable that Giorno would've concealed his identity for years because his youth would've made it difficult for older Mafioso to take him seriously.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'':
** Barbara Gordon got her start as Batgirl initially by impersonating Bat''man'' so the Caped Crusader could make an appearance at a charity event in the episode "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE57ShadowOfTheBatPart1 Shadow of the Bat, Part 1]]".
** Another episode has the Joker going around as Batman committing crimes. No one seems to notice that this version of Batman is much skinnier.

* ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureVentoAureo'': The boss of the Passione mob, Diavolo, is heavily paranoid about ''anyone'' knowing even the slightest bit of personal information about him. In the side story, ''LightNovel/PurpleHazeFeedback'', we learn that following Diavolo's defeat Giorno Giovanna has essentially assumed his identity, behaving as if he's been the boss all along with no one the wiser. Those not in the know find it perfectly reasonable that Giorno would've concealed his identity for years because his youth would've made it difficult for older Mafioso to take him seriously. Those who ''are'' in the know are

* ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureVentoAureo'': The boss of the Passione mob, Diavolo, is heavily paranoid about ''anyone'' knowing even the slightest bit of personal information about him. In the side story, ''LightNovel/PurpleHazeFeedback'', we learn that following Diavolo's defeat Giorno Giovanna has essentially assumed his identity, behaving as if he's been the boss all along with no one the wiser.

* In ''[[Manga/FutsuuNoJoshikouseiGaLocodolYattemita Locodol]]'', the fact that the mascot character Uogokoro-kun uses a full body costume is used to hire a second actor to wear the suit when the demands for the mascot become too much for his main performer, Yui, to handle alone.