How Croatia's Most Famous Hoaxes Fooled the Public
Croatia’s history of hoaxes is not a single tradition of spectacular confidence tricks. It is a varied record of forged antiquities, wartime atrocity stories, journalistic embarrassment, publicity stunts and viral misidentification. The most revealing cases show that falsehood succeeds less through technical brilliance than through timing.
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Introduction
These episodes also require careful labels. Some were deliberate frauds. Others were jokes whose consequences escaped their makers, or legends enlarged by tourism and repetition. The distinction matters because the motives range from money and professional prestige to political mobilisation, satire and simple attention-seeking. What unites them is the way authority, emotion and media circulation can temporarily outweigh verification.
The village blacksmith who supplied “ancient” Dalmatia
One of Croatia’s most striking archaeological forgery stories began during the nineteenth-century expansion of museums and antiquities collecting. Archaeologists working in Dalmatia were acquiring objects from local finders and dealers, often with limited information about where the pieces had supposedly been discovered. That market created an opportunity for Petar Pezelj, a blacksmith from the Sinj area, to manufacture objects that could be offered as ancient finds.
Among the suspicious pieces were small bronze or silver figures presented as products of Roman, early Christian or medieval Dalmatia. They were not necessarily convincing by modern standards. Their workmanship was awkward and their imagery mixed motifs that specialists struggled to place within any recognised artistic tradition. Yet this ambiguity could be interpreted as evidence of a rare provincial style rather than modern fabrication. A strange object arriving from a region rich in Roman remains already possessed a plausible story.
The priest and archaeologist Frane Bulić investigated the objects in 1890. Correspondence with a local teacher identified Pezelj as the maker of at least one purported antiquity. Bulić learnt that the blacksmith avoided him because he feared public exposure. Other objects attributed to the same workshop had already reached collectors or museums, including a figurine bought as a find from the Roman site of Tilurium and a composition associated with the folk hero Prince Marko.[Hrčak]hrcak.srce.hrOpen source on srce.hr.
The case did not end neatly in the nineteenth century. A small praying figure acquired by the Archaeological Museum in Split was repeatedly classified over the following decades as Roman pagan, early Christian, early Byzantine or otherwise ancient. Archaeologist Ante Milošević eventually argued that its manufacturing style, undocumented provenance and close relationship to Pezelj’s known products made it another modern forgery. He explicitly withdrew his own earlier opinion that it was an early Byzantine artefact.[Hrčak]hrcak.srce.hrOpen source on srce.hr.
This was more than a clever craftsman fooling experts. The fraud exploited a system in which:
- museums wanted representative objects from newly studied sites;
- buyers often accepted finds without a secure excavation record;
- unusual features could be explained as local artistic variation;
- publication gave an object scholarly authority that later writers inherited.
The decisive evidence was not a dramatic laboratory test. It was provenance research: museum accounts, old publications, private letters, comparisons with known fakes and the recovery of local testimony about who had made them. The episode remains a useful warning that an object’s appearance cannot compensate for a missing history of discovery and ownership.
The false Vukovar children story
The gravest Croatian example concerns a fabricated atrocity report during the fall of Vukovar in November 1991. A freelance photographer, Goran Mikić, claimed that Croatian forces had slaughtered 41 Serbian children in a school at Borovo Naselje. Reuters transmitted the allegation, and Serbian broadcasters and newspapers amplified it at a moment of extreme violence, fear and ethnic hatred.
The claim collapsed almost immediately. Mikić admitted that he had neither seen nor counted the children’s bodies. Reuters withdrew the story, while the Yugoslav People’s Army denied that such a discovery had been made. Serbian television issued an apology, although the sensational allegation had already received far greater prominence than its correction. A contemporary account in the Los Angeles Times described the photographer’s supposed eyewitness testimony as fabricated.[Wikipedia]WikipediaVukovar children massacre hoaxVukovar children massacre hoax
The story was persuasive because it fitted an established propaganda frame. Serbian state-aligned media frequently portrayed Croatian forces as inheritors of the genocidal violence committed by the fascist Ustaše regime during the Second World War. A report about murdered children did not have to arrive with names, photographs, a verified location or independent witnesses. It needed only to confirm what an already frightened audience had been encouraged to expect.
The timing made the falsehood particularly dangerous. Vukovar had just fallen after a devastating siege. Prisoners and civilians removed from Vukovar hospital were subsequently taken to Ovčara, where more than 190 people were murdered; the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia later prosecuted officers connected with those crimes.[icty.org]icty.orgMrkšić et al. (IT-95-13/1)Legacy website of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Since the ICTY's closure o…
It would be too simple to claim that one false news item directly caused the Ovčara massacre. The killings resulted from military command failures, organised violence and a much broader climate of persecution. However, Vukovar hospital director Vesna Bosanac later testified that she believed the invented children story had been released to inflame demands for revenge. The episode demonstrates how atrocity propaganda can function even after retraction: it supplies emotional permission, reinforces the idea of collective guilt and remains available to anyone who prefers the first dramatic report to the quieter correction.[Wikipedia]WikipediaVukovar children massacre hoaxVukovar children massacre hoax
This case also shows why “both sides used propaganda” is not an adequate conclusion. Croatian and Serbian media environments both produced distortion during the war, but each allegation must still be tested separately. The 41-child massacre was not an uncertain battlefield rumour that remains unresolved. Its supposed witness acknowledged that his account was invented.
A prime minister interviewed by an impostor
In February 2008, the Croatian daily Jutarnji list published what appeared to be a major email interview with Prime Minister Ivo Sanader. Political editor Davor Butković believed he had secured unusually candid remarks from the head of government. The problem was that Sanader had never answered the questions.
A journalism student, Viktor Zahtila, had reportedly created or used a false electronic identity and replied as though he were the prime minister. The newspaper published the exchange without obtaining reliable confirmation from Sanader’s office. Reuters reported that the deception left one of Croatia’s leading newspapers deeply embarrassed.[Reuters]reuters.comCroatian daily embarrassed by hoax PM interviewCroatian daily embarrassed by hoax PM interviewFebruary 13, 2008 — A leading Croatian daily was deeply embarrassed when it publish…
The hoax worked because the communication method appeared ordinary. By 2008, email interviews were routine enough not to seem inherently suspicious, yet digital identity checks were often informal. The impostor did not need to imitate Sanader’s voice in person or produce forged official stationery. He merely had to provide answers that sounded politically plausible and reach a journalist already expecting privileged access.
The invented interview reportedly included comments about Croatia’s economic vulnerability. Such material had obvious news value: a prime minister admitting serious weakness would be a national story. That exclusivity should have prompted stronger checking, but it instead increased the temptation to publish quickly.
The practical verification failures were basic:
- the answers were not confirmed through the prime minister’s known staff;
- the electronic address was treated as proof of identity;
- plausible tone substituted for independent authentication;
- the desire to beat competitors weakened editorial caution.
Unlike the Vukovar fabrication, this was not atrocity propaganda. Its immediate purpose appears to have been exposing or ridiculing weak journalistic practice. Nevertheless, satire does not erase responsibility. The student deliberately impersonated a public official, while the newspaper attached institutional credibility to the false answers. The affair became memorable because both the deceiver and the deceived could claim to be revealing something about the other.
Zagreb’s radio “alien attack”
Later in 2008, Zagreb experienced a smaller but more theatrical media hoax. Radio Antena broadcast reports of an unidentified light or flying object over the city. The presentation imitated the escalating urgency of an unfolding incident, encouraging listeners to treat the report as real. Telephone lines to relatives, emergency services and public authorities were reportedly flooded with calls.
The station eventually admitted that the event had been staged. The organisers said the joke was partly aimed at mocking Zagreb mayor Milan Bandić’s plans to strengthen municipal security with equipment including a helicopter, an unmanned aircraft and an armoured vehicle. In effect, the broadcasters claimed that the false invasion was a political experiment: would an authority building a “security city” react rationally to a fantastical threat?[Gizmodo]gizmodo.comAlien Invasion Hoax Exposes Croatia’s Military Hair TriggerAlien Invasion Hoax Exposes Croatia’s Military Hair Trigger
The stunt drew obvious inspiration from the popular mythology surrounding Orson Welles’s 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast. Yet the familiar defence—“we were testing gullibility”—does not settle whether it was responsible. A broadcaster possesses authority precisely because listeners cannot independently inspect every event described on air. Using that trust to generate alarm may expose weaknesses in official reaction, but it also imposes costs on emergency operators and people who believe they or their families may be in danger.
The Zagreb episode belongs to a category between hoax, satire and media stunt. There was no enduring claim that extraterrestrials had genuinely appeared. The deception was temporary and designed for revelation. Its importance lies in the gap between intention and reception: the makers saw political comedy, while some listeners experienced an emergency.
The president who was not in the photograph
During Croatia’s run to the 2018 football World Cup final, photographs circulated internationally claiming to show President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović in a bikini. The most widely shared images actually showed American model and television personality Coco Austin. Some had already circulated under the false identification after Grabar-Kitarović became president, but the enormous attention surrounding Croatia’s football team gave them a fresh audience.
AFP compared the viral images with authenticated photographs and identified the woman in the principal set as Austin. The false posts continued to reappear years later, despite the correction being readily available.[hibrid.info]hibrid.infoFake posts about former Croatian president are backFake posts about former Croatian president are back
This was not necessarily a centrally planned hoax. It was a chain of miscaptioning and opportunistic reposting. Some users may have believed the identification; others may simply have repeated it because the images attracted attention. That distinction matters legally and morally, but it makes little difference to the mechanism of circulation.
The photographs succeeded because three forms of plausibility reinforced one another. Grabar-Kitarović was receiving unusual global attention; many foreign users did not know her well enough to recognise her; and the images supplied a playful, personality-driven story that travelled more easily than political information about Croatia. Search engines and social platforms then reproduced the association, making the false identification appear more credible through repetition.
The case illustrates a central feature of modern visual misinformation: the picture itself need not be altered. A genuine photograph with a false caption is cheaper to produce, often harder for casual viewers to question and capable of travelling far beyond the context in which it was first taken.
When legend becomes a tourist attraction
Not every Croatian mystery story is a deliberate fraud. The so-called Pag Triangle, a roughly geometric patch of disturbed or differently arranged stones near Caska on the island of Pag, has been promoted in some accounts as the trace of a spacecraft or unexplained energy phenomenon. It was noticed in 1999 and became associated with UFO stories, healing claims and descriptions such as “Croatia’s Bermuda Triangle”.
There is no established scientific evidence that the formation is artificial, extraterrestrial or geochemically exceptional. It sits in broken karst terrain where natural surface patterns can easily invite pareidolia—the human tendency to perceive meaningful shapes in ambiguous material. Visitors have also removed and rearranged stones, making later claims about its original appearance increasingly difficult to test.[Wikipedia]WikipediaPag TrianglePag Triangle
The Pag Triangle is therefore better described as a modern legend than a proven hoax. The original observer may have sincerely found the pattern unusual. UFO enthusiasts supplied an extraordinary interpretation; media coverage increased its visibility; tourism gave the mystery economic value; and repeated visits physically altered the supposed evidence.
That sequence is common in fortean tourism. Nobody needs to invent the entire story at once. A curious landscape feature, an ambiguous photograph and a few local anecdotes can gradually become a named “mystery”. Once road signs, tours and souvenirs appear, the legend acquires a public reality even though its paranormal explanation remains unsupported.
Why these stories were believed
The Croatian cases differ sharply in seriousness, but they repeatedly exploit the same weaknesses.
A trusted intermediary carried the claim. Museums legitimised forged figurines by accessioning and publishing them. Reuters and broadcasters gave reach to the Vukovar story. A national newspaper vouched for the false Sanader interview. Radio Antena performed the authority of live news.
The claim satisfied an existing expectation. Collectors expected Roman antiquities in Dalmatia. Wartime audiences expected enemy atrocities. Editors expected politicians to use email. Football audiences wanted colourful stories about Croatia’s president. UFO enthusiasts expected geometric traces to conceal extraordinary origins.
Verification lagged behind circulation. A forged object might remain in scholarly literature for decades. The Vukovar report was corrected quickly, but only after its emotional message had spread. Online photographs could be debunked repeatedly without disappearing.
The correction lacked the appeal of the original. “No bodies were found” is less vivid than murdered children. “The photograph shows a model” is less shareable than an attractive president at the centre of a global sporting story. Hoaxes benefit from narrative; corrections often arrive as administration.
Croatia has also developed institutions intended to reduce that gap. Faktograf emerged as the country’s first dedicated fact-checking outlet and has participated in international fact-checking networks, while the Croatian-Slovenian Adria Digital Media Observatory studies disinformation and promotes media literacy. National Media Literacy Days have involved schools, regulators, civil society groups and thousands of young participants.[unicef.org]unicef.orgOpen source on unicef.org.
What the Croatian cases reveal
The most important lesson is not that Croatians were unusually easy to deceive. Each episode grew from incentives and conditions found elsewhere: competitive collecting, commercial media pressure, wartime nationalism, political satire, celebrity culture and mystery tourism.
The archaeological forgeries show how institutions can create authenticity around objects whose origins were never secure. The Vukovar fabrication shows that a rapidly withdrawn story can still contribute to a lethal moral climate. The Sanader interview and alien broadcast expose the risks of treating deception as a harmless test of journalism or authority. The presidential photographs demonstrate how social media can turn mistaken identity into a self-renewing international myth. The Pag Triangle shows how sincere curiosity may harden into commercially useful folklore without any single identifiable fraudster.
Taken together, these stories offer a practical test for suspicious claims connected with Croatia or anywhere else: ask who first supplied the evidence, whether its origin can be reconstructed, what the publisher stood to gain, and whether the correction received anything like the prominence of the claim. Hoaxes thrive where a good story arrives before those questions do.
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Endnotes
1.
Source: hrcak.srce.hr
Link:https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/328013
2.
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Vukovar children massacre hoax
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vukovar_children_massacre_hoax
3.
Source: icty.org
Link:https://www.icty.org/en/case/mrksic
Source snippet
Mrkšić et al. (IT-95-13/1)Legacy website of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Since the ICTY's closure o...
4.
Source: irmct.org
Link:https://www.irmct.org/en/mip/features/vukovar
Source snippet
Vukovar Crimes | UNITED NATIONSThe selected case information below provides an overview of the cases completed before the ICTY/Mecha...
5.
Source: reuters.com
Title: Croatian daily embarrassed by hoax PM interview
Link:https://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyle/croatian-daily-embarrassed-by-hoax-pm-interview-idUSL1293967/
Source snippet
Croatian daily embarrassed by hoax PM interviewFebruary 13, 2008 — A leading Croatian daily was deeply embarrassed when it publish...
Published: February 13, 2008
6.
Source: gizmodo.com
Title: Alien Invasion Hoax Exposes Croatia’s Military Hair Trigger
Link:https://gizmodo.com/alien-invasion-hoax-exposes-croatia-s-military-hair-tri-5110720
7.
Source: hibrid.info
Title: Fake posts about former Croatian president are back
Link:https://hibrid.info/en/Fake-posts-about-former-Croatian-president-return/
8.
Source: factcheck.afp.com
Title: images croatian president bikini beware fakes
Link:https://factcheck.afp.com/images-croatian-president-bikini-beware-fakes
9.
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Pag Triangle
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pag_Triangle
10.
Source: unicef.org
Link:https://www.unicef.org/croatia/en/press-releases/children-and-young-people-focus-fake-news-and-developing-critical-thinking-skills
11.
Source: faktograf.hr
Link:https://faktograf.hr/udruga/en/networks/
12.
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Archaeological forgery
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeological_forgery
13.
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Belgian UFO wave
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_UFO_wave
14.
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Ivo Sanader
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivo_Sanader
15.
Source: Wikipedia
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faktograf.hr
16.
Source: faktograf.hr
Title: 20250315 2024 cop report faktograf
Link:https://faktograf.hr/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/20250315-2024-cop-report-faktograf.pdf
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Source: reuters.com
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Source: reuters.com
Link:https://www.reuters.com/video/watch/idRW085320062026RP1/
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Source: reuters.com
Title: israel targeted gaza children resulting genocide un inquiry says 2026 06 23
Link:https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-targeted-gaza-children-resulting-genocide-un-inquiry-says-2026-06-23/
20.
Source: hoaxes.org
Link:https://hoaxes.org/archive/categories
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Source: admohub.eu
Title: Adria Digital Media Observatory
Link:https://admohub.eu/en/
22.
Source: hrcak.srce.hr
Link:https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/439506
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Source: disinfocode.eu
Link:https://disinfocode.eu/reports/faktograf/8
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Source: disinfocode.eu
Link:https://disinfocode.eu/reports/faktograf/8?chapterId=78&commitmentId=380
25.
Source: credibilitycoalition.org
Link:https://credibilitycoalition.org/credcatalog/project/faktograf-hr/
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Source: digitallibrary.un.org
Link:https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/217207
Additional References
27.
Source: refworld.org
Link:https://www.refworld.org/jurisprudence/caselaw/icty/2007/66072
Source snippet
Prosecutor v. Mrksic et al. (Trial Judgment)Prosecutor v. Mrksic et al. (Trial Judgment) · Author: International Criminal Tribuna...
28.
Source: youtube.com
Title: How Did The Media Cover The Croatian War Of Independence?
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrkxypRORmY
Source snippet
Croatia hoax fake Croatia's LAST-Minute Goal Ruled OFFSIDE vs Portugal! 😱 #worldcup #portugal #croatia FootyTalks...
29.
Source: latimes.com
Title: la xpm 1991 12 17 wr 667 story
Link:https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-12-17-wr-667-story.html
Source snippet
Los Angeles TimesMedia: Truth Is Again a Casualty of War: Fabricated...17 Dec 1991 — A Serbian photographer's claim to have seen the m...
30.
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Title: all the journalists affairs
Link:https://arhiva.nacional.hr/en/clanak/42702/all-the-journalists-affairs
Source snippet
All the journalist's affairs12 Feb 2008 — Publishing the false interview with Premier Ivo Sanader is the tragi-comic pinnacle of...
31.
Source: youtube.com
Title: Croatia Villa Scams – How to Spot Fake Rentals & Protect Your Vacation
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNTs2ks5VIA
Source snippet
How Did The Media Cover The Croatian War Of Independence? - TalkingSoutheastEurope...
32.
Source: youtube.com
Title: Amazing ‘magnetic’ boy has weird power to attract metal objects with his body
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Source snippet
Croatia Villa Scams – How to Spot Fake Rentals & Protect Your Vacation...
33.
Source: youtube.com
Title: Meet Ivan Amazing Croatian Magnetic and Healing Boy
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjHti-3KHB4
Source snippet
Amazing 'magnetic' boy has weird power to attract metal objects with his body...
34.
Source: academia.edu
Link:https://www.academia.edu/104742523/UFOs_Earthquakes_and_the_Straight_Line_Mystery_The_Answer_to_the_UFO_Enigma
35.
Source: mentalfloss.com
Link:https://www.mentalfloss.com/science/archaeology/10-fake-archaeological-finds
36.
Source: instagram.com
Link:https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZx4MC_ojX1/
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