False documents are forged for fraud, from illegal immigration to literary forgery, and aim to mislead others into believing the information is true. The 16th-century novel Amadis de Gaula was an early example of a forged document, and illegal immigrants use false documents to obtain green cards. False reports of UFOs and conspiracy theories often require proof, and literature has many cases of forged documents, including plagiarism and fabricated events. Examples include the fake Hitler diary entries and James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces.
A false document is a type of deed, certificate or literary work that has been forged for the purpose of fraud. Forged documents come in many varieties in a number of different fields, from illegal immigration paperwork to literary forgery, from reports of unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings to reports of conspiracy theories. The intent of a false document is to mislead another party into believing that the information provided on the document is true.
The 16th-century novel Amadis de Gaula was one of the earliest recorded instances of a forged document. The author, Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, later claimed that he had “edited” several aspects of the story and that he was not the real author of the first three volumes of the fictional book; he claimed to have written the fourth volume in its entirety. This event laid the foundations for the future forgery of documents in both the literary and legal fields.
In cases of illegal immigration, a false document is sometimes used to obtain a green card. US government-issued green cards, for example, are exceptionally difficult to replicate, but the documents required to obtain a green card (birth certificates, baptismal certificates, or driver’s licenses) can be forged quite easily. This type of deception is done to curb immigration laws and allow immigrants to stay, live and work in a country they might otherwise have to leave.
A false report of a UFO or a conspiracy theory is another variety of false documentation. These hoaxes have traditionally required “proof” of documents to corroborate the false claims. An example of this type of documentation was in George Adamski’s book Flying Saucers Have Landed, which claimed that Adamski was carried into space by aliens. It was later revealed that Adamski based the book on an earlier fictional work he had written that he was attempting to pass off as true.
The field of literature has some of the most prevalent cases of forged documents. Many writers have plagiarized the work of other writers or made up events entirely and then tried to present them as having happened. In one famous example, a magazine published excerpts it claimed were Adolf Hitler’s diary entries; the documents were later revealed to be forgeries. False documentation allegations also came into play when author James Frey was found to have fabricated large portions of his bestselling memoir A Million Little Pieces.
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