Impostor
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An impostor (or imposter, a common variant) is a person who pretends to be somebody else.
Most impostors try to gain financial or social advantages. Pretenders for various thrones used to be common. Numerous men claimed they were Dauphin, heir to the French throne who disappeared during the French Revolution. There were at least two false Dimitris who were serious pretenders for the throne of Russia. The public fascination with impostors extends to modern literature; a well-known recent example is Miles Derry, the janitor who impersonates a U.S. Navy chaplain in the book One of the Guys by Robert Clark Young.
Very daring impostors may pretend to be someone else who really exists although fast news media has made this rather difficult in these days. Usually they just misrepresent their financial, educational or social status, family background and in some cases, their gender.
Impostors are usually aware of not being who they say they are; they are not the proverbial lunatics who think they are Napoleon. However there are borderline cases who may have ended up believing their own tall tales.
People may make false claims about their past or background—that they can sing, for example—without being full-blown impostors; non-existent military service seems common. Only if a significant part of their past is fabricated—like that of George Dupre who claimed to have been an SOE agent in World War II—they approach the admittedly hazy border.
Many temporary impostors are criminals who maintain the façade for a time of a caper to defraud their victims (like Wilhelm Voigt). Others, like US prankster Joey Skaggs, do it as a prank or to make a point of some kind. The latter usually reveal the truth sooner or later. Some, like John Howard Griffin, have adopted other identity for purposes of research, investigation or experiment.
Note that although impostors usually misrepresent their background, their intentions may not be criminal as such. They may wish to start anew with a new identity or "go native"; i.e. adopt identity and customs of other people. Sometimes women have masqueraded as men to obtain privileges only men can have or work in male-dominated professions (see James Barry). Some of them have fought as men at least in Napoleonic Wars and American Civil War.
Sometimes an organization (or even individual) who has been fooled keeps quiet to avoid the embarrassment and therefore allows the impostor try the same thing elsewhere.
Of course, the most successful impostors are those whose duplicity is never revealed so that we know nothing about them.
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Sample impostors
Fraudsters
- Frank Abagnale, who passed bad checks as a fake Pan Am pilot, doctor and lawyer
- Cassie Chadwick, who pretended to be Andrew Carnegie's daughter
- David Hampton, who took a role of non-existent son of Sidney Poitier
- Frederick Emerson Peters, US celebrity impersonator and writer of bad checks
- James Reavis, who claimed he owned Arizona
- Christopher Rocancourt, US fake Rockefeller
- Tichborne Claimant
- Wilhelm Voigt, "Captain of Köpenick"
- Lobsang Rampa, who claimed to be a deceased Tibetan Lama possessing the body of Cyril Hoskins and wrote a number of popular yet quite fraudulent books based on that premise.
Exotic impostors
- Mary Baker, who pretended to be Princess Caraboo of Javasu
- George Psalmanazar, who claimed to be from Formosa
False pretenders
- Anna Anderson, who may have really thought she was Anastasia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia
- Harry Domela, who pretended to be a heir to German throne
- Eugenia Smith, another woman who claimed to be Anastasia
- Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the throne of England
- Pierre Plantard, mastermind behind the Priory of Sion hoax, claimed to be Merovingian pretender to the throne of France
People who tried to begin anew
- Martin Hewitt, who became a university professor without real credentials
- Brian MacKinnon, who went back to being a teenager in order to re-enter medical school
People who "went native"
- Grey Owl, an Englishman who wanted to be Ojibwa
- Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance
- Iron Eyes Cody, an Italian American actor who claimed to be Native American
Multiple impostors
- Ferdinand Waldo Demara, "The Great Imposter"
- Stanley Clifford Weyman
Women who lived as men
Many women in history, who may not have been transgendered, have presented themselves as men in order to advance in typically male-dominated fields.
- James Barry, Victorian physician
- Frances Clalin, who served in Missouri artillery during the United States Civil War
- Catalina de Erauso, Basque nun-soldier under Spanish colonial army.
- Dorothy Lawrence, English journalist who wore uniform during the World War I
- Jennie Hodgers who fought as a Union soldier Albert Cashier
- Deborah Sampson, female soldier during the American War of Independence
- Harriet Stokes
- Mary Anne Talbot
- Billy Tipton, jazz musician
- Loreta Janeta Velazquez, Confederate soldier Harry T. Buford
Others
- Will Not, who received emails meant for HRH Prince William. He turned them into a website, willnot.co.uk, which explores the nature of celebrity, royalty and online fandom.
- Roberto Coppola, Italian fake priest
- Count Dante, real name John Keehan. Many do not recognize his rationale for assuming the title [and allegedly rightful name] of Spanish nobility. In his campaign to promote his system of martial arts, he also claimed victories in various secret deathmatches in Asia and mercenary activity in Cuba, none of which carried documented proof.
- Chevalier d'Eon who lived the second half of his life as a woman.
- Fr. Rolfe, better known as Baron Corvo
- John Howard Griffin who darkened his skin and travelled in the American South as a black man in 1959, later written as Black Like Me
- Pavel Jerdanowitch, father of the Disumbrationist movement
- Ashida Kim believed by many to be Caucasian author and self proclaimed ninja Christopher Hunter who wrote numerous books on ninjutsu during the 70s and 80s. Noted for refusing to provide details about his teachers or the lineage of the martial art in which he claims expertise.
- Louis de Rougemont, who claimed to be an explorer
- Arnaud du Tilh, who took the place of Martin Guerre
- Binjamin Wilkomirski, fake Holocaust survivor
- Micah Wright, anti-war activist who claimed to be an Army Ranger involved in Panama and several covert operations
Books
- Sarah Burton: Impostors - Six kinds of liar
See also
- Impersonator
- Claims of imposture
- Internet imposture
- List of Messiah claimants
- identity theft
- charlatan
- Confidence trick
Impostor (1953) is also the name of a short story by Philip K. Dick, and of a movie (2002) based on the short story.de:Hochstapler