8 Bonkers Hoaxes That Actually Fooled People

8. The Cat With A PhD

Zoe D Katze, PhD., C.Ht., DAPA is certified by the National Guild of Hypnotists, the American Board of Hypnotherapy, and the International Medical & Dental Hypnotherapy Association. She is a Professional Member of the American Association of Professional Hypnotherapists.

Pretty impressive seeing as she's actually a cat, and not even a pure bred one at that.

Zoe earned her many qualifications and credentials from so-called "diploma mills" with the help of her owner Steve Eichel, PhD (that PhD is a real one), to prove a point about just how easy it is to get some impressive sounding letters after your name. For many of these, all you have to do is send off an application, pay a fee and, boom, you're a fully-fledged psychotherapist/nutritionist/allergist/whatever with a diploma to frame on your wall.

The game was only up for Zoe when a journalist from a major magazine wrote to her for a quote on on hypnosis for childbirthing and Eichel had to admit to what he'd done, or that would have been a very awkward phonecall.