Hoaxer Rosie Ruiz

One of the most-remembered hoaxers of them all is Rosie Ruiz, a Cuban-born woman who "won" the 1980 Boston Marathon.

Ruiz started the race with the other runners, dropped out and took public transportation, then jumped back into the front of the pack and finished first, ahead of the actual winner, Jacqueline Gareau, and the other 446 women in the race.

A few days later, reports appeared that someone had seen Ruiz during her mid-race bus ride. It also came to light that in order to qualify for the Boston event, Ruiz had cheated in a similar manner to qualify for the 1979 New York Marathon, this time taking the subway before crossing the finish line.

Ruiz had a run-in with drug-related legal trouble in the early 1980s, then moved to Florida.

Her temporarily successful and much publicized hoax has been responsible for increased camera monitoring of marathons to prevent repetitions of this kind of hoax.