Hoax Museum Blog: Exploration/Travel

Fake Names on Air Canada — Flight attendants on Air Canada are all going to start wearing fake names on their name tags, as a security measure. So your stewardess could now be Xena, Warrior Princess or Zsa Zsa Gabor.
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2003.   Comments (0)

Tourist Flights to Mars — This story is five years old (dating back to 1998) but someone just sent it to me anyway. It details what appears to be a case of extreme gullibility. But a search on Lexis-Nexis for any newspaper report of this scam occurring in the past twenty years turned up nothing—except for skeptical references to this same email. So I've got to conclude that the case this email describes is just an urban legend. This person posting on SpaceFuture.com's message board back in 1998 agrees. Here's the text of the email:

More than 600 people in Italy wanted to ride in a spaceship badly enough to pay
$10,000 a piece for the first tourist flight to Mars. According to the Italian
police, the would-be space travelers were told to spend their "next vacation on
Mars, amid the splendors of ruined temples and painted deserts. Ride a Martian
camel from oasis to oasis and enjoy the incredible Martian sunsets. Explore
mysterious canals and marvel at the views. Trips to the moon also available."
Authorities believe that the con men running this scam made off with over six
million dollars.

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2003.   Comments (2)

Fake Vacations — Many Italians are too embarrassed to admit that they can't afford to go on vacation, so they take fake vacations instead (i.e. tell everyone they're going away, then sit in their room with a sunlamp).
Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2003.   Comments (2)

Burning Man Hoax — I've never been to the Burning Man festival, but from what I hear it would be fair to call it representative of hippie culture. You go out into the desert for a few days, smoke dope, listen to music, and generally let it all hang out. So imagine the horror of Burning Man devotees when they come across this website offering a package tour to the festival. The deal included an air-conditioned tent and front-row seats at the festival. It smacked of yuppie/corporate encroachment. But the site turns out to have been a hoax designed by Burning Man regulars.
Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2003.   Comments (0)


Balloons in Space — I just read about this British plan to fly a hot-air balloon right up to the very edge of space. The balloon pilots will have to wear spacesuits to protect them from the low air pressure and cosmic rays at that elevation. Of course, they've already been beaten out by Hans Pfaall who rode a hot air balloon all the way to the moon back in 1835.
Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2003.   Comments (0)

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