Alfred E. Neuman
Mad Magazine‘s mascot Alfred E. Neuman never actually existed. The gap toothed redhead was not a journalist but seemingly a riff on early cartoons, some of which date back all the way to the 1800s.
Lennay Kekua
New Orleans Saints linebacker Manti Te’o believed he was in a long distance relationship with Lennary Kekua, a woman he had never actually met who supposedly died of leukemia in 2012. It turned out that an acquaintance of his, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, was catfishing him and duped Te’o into believing she was real. He had used an old classmates photograph to dupe Te’o.