The UFO Phenomenon

Hoaxers fool thousands with fake UFO snaps

By T.K. Randall
September 26, 2014

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) When photographs of the object were posted online by several different witnesses over the last two weeks the mystery of the Portsmouth UFO quickly became a hot topic on social media. Nobody seemed to know what the object was and the Met Office confirmed that it wasn't a weather related phenomenon.

As it turns out however the mysterious object hadn't actually existed at all - it was a complete fabrication put together by the people behind an upcoming science fiction and fantasy festival.

"We got eight or 10 people from around Portsmouth to take a picture at the same time on the same evening," said event organiser Joshua Hibberd. "I e-mailed them to another organiser, Dan Cook, who is a whizz with Photoshop. He added the UFO, and we had help from others to get people talking about it on social media."The result was a convincing and elaborate hoax that gained attention from around the globe.

"It's amazing how people's imaginations have been taken by this," said Hibberd. "We wanted it to be Portsmouth-wide, but we didn't expect it to be worldwide."

Did anyone see it again tonight? I took this pic..#pompeyufo pic.twitter.com/KF8HPEWXYr

— Lewis Rogers (@LRProductions_) September 17, 2014

Source: Portsmouth News

Tags: Portsmouth, UFO