Revision 809889446 of "False document" on enwiki

{{unfocused|date=August 2017}}
A '''false document''' is often promoted in conjunction with a criminal enterprise, such as [[fraud]] or a [[confidence game]]. 

However, a ''false document'' is also a technique employed to create [[verisimilitude]] in a work of fiction. By inventing and inserting documents that appear to be factual, an author tries to create a sense of authenticity beyond the normal and expected [[suspension of disbelief]] for a [[work of art]]. The goal of a false document is to convince an audience that what is being presented is factual.

==In business==
Forged documents in business are typically for financial gain.

=== Material certificates ===
A material's [[Mill Test Report|certification]], essentially a report of its composition and properties, may be forged.  A low-property material, produced for lower cost, may be passed as a higher-property material, which has a higher price.  The difference becomes illicit profit. Counterfeit fasteners have low-strength alloys or inferior production processes, but are sold as high-strength fasteners.

=== Safety certificates ===
Similarly, parts, systems, and processes for high-valued operations may have their [[Quality Assurance|quality-assurance documents]] forged.  Substandard items may be cheaper or simply more readily available. Nuclear power plants in Japan and Korea have found components with forged safety documents.
''See also'': [[Information Assurance]]

=== Degree certificates ===
Academic degrees often qualify for recruitment, promotions and additional pay. There are many methods to get false degree certificates. First, university officials have been bribed to issue a certificate without study. Second, false universities called [[diploma mill]]s issue certificates that have no legal standing and are usually purchased outright without study, but they may still be legal. Finally, degree certificates have been directly [[Forgery|forged]], which is a felony in most jurisdictions. Besides the degree certificate itself, final theses and essays have been falsified by e.g. plagiarism, ghost writing or inclusion of fake references. Thus, the degree certificate itself is genuine but it may be revoked.

==In politics==
A forged document, the [[Zinoviev Letter]], brought about the downfall of the first [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Government]] in Britain. Conspiracies within secret intelligence services have occurred more recently, leading [[Harold Wilson]]  to put in place rules to prevent in the 1960s [[phone tapping]] of [[members of Parliament]], for example.

''[[The Protocols of the Elders of Zion]]'', purporting to describe a [[Jew]]ish plan for global domination, was first published in Russia in 1903, translated into multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the 20th century.

== In art ==
Artist [[J. S. G. Boggs|JSG Boggs]]'s life and work have been extensively explored by author and journalist [[Lawrence Weschler]]. Boggs draws currency with exceptional care and accuracy, but he only ever draws one side. He then attempts to buy things with the piece of paper upon which he has drawn the currency. His goal is to pass each bill for its face value in common transactions. He buys lunch, clothes, and lodging in this manner, and after the transactions are complete, his bills fetch many times their face value on the art market. Boggs does not make any money from the much larger art market value of his work, only from reselling the goods bought, the change and receipts and other such materials. He has been arrested in many countries, and there is much controversy surrounding his work.

[[Orson Welles]]' ''[[F for Fake]]'' is a prime example of a film which is both about falsification ([[art forgery]] and the journalism surrounding art forgery) as well as having falsified moments within the film. The movie follows the exploits of a famous art forger, his biographer [[Clifford Irving]], and the subsequent fake [[autobiography]] of [[Howard Hughes]] that Irving tries to publish. The issues of veracity and forgery are explored in the film, while at the same time, Welles tricks the audience by incorporating fake bits of narrative alongside the documentary footage.

==In cross-marketing==
There is a long history of producers creating tie-in material to promote and merchandise movies and television shows. Tie-in materials as far-ranging as toys, games, lunch boxes, clothing and so on have all been created and in some cases generate as much or more revenue as the original programming. One big merchandising arena is publishing. In most cases such material is not considered [[canon (fiction)|canon]] within the show's mythology; however, in some instances the books, magazines, etc. are specifically designed by the creators to be canonical. With the rise of the Internet, in-canon online material has become more prominent.

The following is a list of "false document" in-canon supplemental material:
* ''[[Twin Peaks]]'' spawned three [[Books of Twin Peaks|canon books]]:
**''[[The Autobiography of F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper: My Life, My Tapes]]'' {{ISBN|0-671-74400-3}}
**''[[The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer]]'' {{ISBN|0-671-73590-X}}
**''[[Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town]]'' {{ISBN|0-671-74399-6}}
Additionally, a set of [[trading cards]] was produced which are also canon.
* ''[[Gary Troup (Lost)|Bad Twin]]'' {{ISBN|1-4013-0276-9}} is a canon tie-in novel for the TV series ''[[Lost (2004 TV series)|Lost]]''

== Hoaxes ==
{{Main|Hoax}}
A number of [[hoax]]es have involved false documents:
* [[Salamander Letter]]
* ''[[The Report From Iron Mountain]]''
* The [[Oera Linda]] book
* The [[Hitler Diaries]]
* The [[Protocols of the Elders of Zion]]
* Les ''[[Dossiers Secrets|Dossiers Secrets d'Henri Lobineau]]''

==See also==
* [[False documentation]]
* [[Alternate reality game]]
* [[A Racial Program for the Twentieth Century]], an anti-Semitic forgery
* [[April Fools' Day RFC]]
* [[Conspiracy theory]]
* [[Donation of Constantine]]
* [[Epistolary novel]]
* [[Fictional book]]
* [[Fictional guidebook]]
* [[Forgery]]
* [[Frame tale]]
* [[Literary forgery]]
* [[Literary technique]]
* [[Fictitious entry]]
* [[Mockumentary]]
* [[Questioned document examination]]
* [[Urban legend]]
* [[Voynich manuscript]]

==References==
* [[Curtis Peebles]] (1994). ''Watch the Skies: A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth'', [[Smithsonian Institution]], {{ISBN|1-56098-343-4}}

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[[Category:Narratology]]
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