History Main / ScoobyDooHoax

* ''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.]]