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Impostor (1953) is also the name of a short story by Philip K. Dick and of a 2002 film, starring Madeleine Stowe and Gary Sinise, that is based on the short story.

An impostor (or imposter, a common variant) is a person who pretends to be somebody else.

Most impostors try to gain financial or social advantages. Pretenders for various thrones used to be common. Numerous men claimed they were Dauphin, heir to the French throne who disappeared during the French Revolution. There were at least two false Dimitris who were serious pretenders for the throne of Russia.

Very daring impostors may pretend to be someone else who really exists although fast news media has made this rather difficult in these days. Usually they just misrepresent their financial, educational or social status, family background and in some cases, their gender.

Impostors are usually aware of not being who they say they are; they are not the proverbial lunatics who think they are Napoleon. However there are borderline cases who may have ended up believing their own tall tales.

People may make false claims about their past or background—that they can sing, for example—without being full-blown impostors; non-existent military service seems common. Only if a significant part of their past is fabricated—like that of George Dupre who claimed to have been an SOE agent in World War II—they approach the admittedly hazy border.

Many temporary impostors are criminals who maintain the façade for a time of a caper to defraud their victims (like Wilhelm Voigt). Others, like US prankster Joey Skaggs, do it as a prank or to make a point of some kind. The latter usually reveal the truth sooner or later. Some, like John Howard Griffin, have adopted other identity for purposes of research, investigation or experiment.

Note that although impostors usually misrepresent their background, their intentions may not be criminal as such. They may wish to start anew with a new identity or "go native"; i.e. adopt identity and customs of other people. Sometimes women have masqueraded as men to obtain privileges only men can have or work in male-dominated professions (see James Barry). Some of them have fought as men at least in Napoleonic Wars and American Civil War.

Sometimes an organization (or even individual) who has been fooled keeps quiet to avoid the embarrassment and therefore allows the impostor try the same thing elsewhere.

Of course, the most successful impostors are those whose duplicity is never revealed so that we know nothing about them.

Notable impostors

Fraudsters

• Frank Abagnale, who passed bad checks as a fake pilot, doctor and lawyer
• Cassie Chadwick, who pretended to be Andrew Carnegie's daughter
• David Hampton, who took a role of non-existent son of Sidney Poitier
• Frederick Emerson Peters, US celebrity impersonator and writer of bad checks
• James Reavis, who claimed he owned Arizona
• Christopher Rocancourt, US fake Rockefeller
• Tichborne Claimant
• Wilhelm Voigt, "Captain of Köpenick"
• Lobsang Rampa, who claimed to be a deceased Tibetan Lama possessing the body of Cyril Hoskins and wrote a number of popular yet quite fraudulent books based on that premise.

Exotic impostors

• Mary Baker, who pretended to be Princess Caraboo of Javasu
• Youree Dell Harris, better known as Miss Cleo, claimed to be from Jamaica.
• George Psalmanazar, who claimed to be from Formosa

Royal impostors

• Anna Anderson, who may have really believed she was Anastasia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia
• Natalya Petrovna Bilikhodze, another Russian Anastasia pretender
• Alexis Brimeyer, Belgian who claimed connection to various European royal houses
• Marco Tullio Catizone impostor of Philip II of Spain
• Harry Domela, who pretended to be a heir to German throne
• Eugenio Lascorz who claimed connection to the royal house of the Byzantine Empire
• Eugenia Smith, another woman who claimed to be Anastasia
• Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the throne of England
• Pierre Plantard, mastermind behind the Priory of Sion hoax, claimed to be Merovingian pretender to the throne of France
• Christopher Edward Buckingham, Earl of Buckingham (actually Charles Albert Stopford III), an American who has claimed to be an English nobleman since 1983 using the name of a dead infant.
• Count Dante, real name John Keehan. Many do not recognize his rationale for assuming the title and allegedly rightful name of Spanish nobility. In his campaign to promote his system of martial arts, he also claimed victories in various secret deathmatches in Asia and mercenary activity in Cuba, none of which carried documented proof.
• Mary Carleton amongst other things, a false princess and bigamist.
• Frederick Rolfe, better known as Baron Corvo

People who tried to begin anew

• Martin Hewitt, who became a university professor without real credentials
• Brian MacKinnon, who went back to being a teenager in order to re-enter medical school

People who "went native"

• Grey Owl, an Englishman who wanted to be Ojibwa
• Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance an African American who claimed to be Native American
• Iron Eyes Cody, an Italian American actor who claimed to be Native American
• Two Moon Meridas, herbalist and faux Amerindian
• Ward Churchill, a professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado whose career is based on his claim to be Cherokee, although genealogical records show no non-white ancestry.
• Donald Grinde, a history professor at SUNY-Buffalo, claims to be a Yamasee Indian, although the tribe went extinct several centuries ago.

Multiple impostors

• Ferdinand Waldo Demara, "The Great Imposter"
• Stanley Clifford Weyman
• Laurel Rose Willson, first claimed to be "Lauren Stratford", a victim of satanic ritual abuse; after her story was debunked, she then claimed to be Holocaust survivor "Laura Grabowski" (see also Binjamin Wilkomirski)

Women who lived as men

Many women in history, who may not have been transgendered, have presented themselves as men in order to advance in typically male-dominated fields. See also: Crossdressing during wartime

• James Barry, who successfully lived as a male British military surgeon
• Frances Clalin, who served in Missouri artillery during the United States Civil War
• Catalina de Erauso, Basque nun-soldier under Spanish colonial army.
• Dorothy Lawrence, English journalist who wore uniform during the World War I
• Deborah Sampson, female soldier during the American War of Independence
• Mary Anne Talbot
• Billy Tipton jazz musician
• Loreta Janeta Velazquez, Confederate soldier Harry T. Buford
• Nadezhda Durova, a woman who became a decorated soldier in the Russian cavalry during the Napoleonic wars.

Military Impostors

• Wes Cooley, US Congressman who claimed to have fought in the Korean War
• Brian Dennehy, American actor who claimed to have fought in the Vietnam War
• George Dupre, claimed that he had been working for Special Operations Executive and the French Resistance during World War II
• Joseph Ellis, American professor and historian who claimed a tour of duty in the Vietnam War, but only served in America
• Tim Johnson, former Toronto Blue Jays manager who claimed to have killed children in the Vietnam War, but never saw combat
• Charlie Holland, former president of Writers Guild of America claimed to be in the Green Berets
• Jesse Macbeth, anti-war activist who claimed to be an Army Ranger who was ordered to execute innocent civilians in Iraq
• Alan Mcilwraith, a call centre worker from Glasgow who claimed he was a British Army officer
• Douglas R. Stringfellow, former congressman from Utah who claimed to serve in the Office of Strategic Services during World War II
• Micah Wright, anti-war activist who claimed to be an Army Ranger involved in the United States invasion of Panama and several covert operations

Others

• Bampfylde Moore Carew was a Devonshire man whose popular Life and Adventures included picaresque episodes of vagabond life included his claim to have been elected King of the Beggars.
• Will Not, who received emails meant for HRH Prince William. He turned them into a website, willnot.co.uk, which explores the nature of celebrity, royalty and online fandom.
• Roberto Coppola, Italian fake priest
• Chevalier d'Eon who lived the second half of his life as a woman.
• Robert Hendy-Freegard, fake MI5 officer
• John Howard Griffin who darkened his skin and travelled in the American South as a black man in 1959, later written as Black Like Me
• Pavel Jerdanowitch, father of the Disumbrationist movement
• Ashida Kim believed by many to be Caucasian author and self proclaimed ninja Radford Davis (alternate pen name Christopher Hunter) who wrote numerous books on ninjutsu during the 70s and 80s. Noted for refusing to provide details about his teachers or the lineage of the martial art in which he claims expertise.
• James of Julich, ecclesiastical impostor
• Louis de Rougemont, who claimed to be an explorer.
• Steven Jay Russell, US judge impostor
• It is arguable as to whether Giovanni di Stefano is truly an avvocato.
• Treva Throneberry who became a younger Brianna Steward
• Paulus Tigrinus, fake patriarch of Constantinople.
• Arnaud du Tilh, who took the place of Martin Guerre
• Binjamin Wilkomirski, fake Holocaust survivor.

Books

• Sarah Burton: Impostors - Six kinds of liar

See also

• Capgras syndrome
• Charlatan
• Confidence trick
• Identity theft
• Impersonator
• Impostor Syndrome
• Identity deception
• List of Messiah claimants
• Political decoys

• Impostors