Taro Tsujimoto
Hailed as “the pride of Tokyo,” Taro Tsujimoto was a fictional draft pick that was “chosen” for the Buffalo Sabres in 1974. He was invented by their then-general manager Punch Imlach who was tired of the overly tedious draft process. The pick was widely reported on the news before it was revealed to be a hoax.
John Barron
During the 1980’s, when reporters called the Trump Organization, they were directed to Donald Trump’s official spokesman, John Barron, who would be quoted in several print stories about the Trump family. It was revealed years later that there was no John Barron and it was Donald Trump himself, who admitted that he was his own official spokesperson and that nobody had noticed.