Even almost a decade after its release, Grand Theft Auto V continues to see an active and invested player base. Between GTA Online, periodic new content, and Rockstar’s ongoing support, it’s no wonder the game is as alive as ever.

GTA is a blockbuster, slow-burn series where the time between individual entries can last over a decade. It’s no wonder many hoaxes arose around the fifth numbered entry before it was even released. Here in 2020, it’s easy to look back at some of these hoaxes with skepticism or disbelief, but it’s important to remember how many of these scams players fell for.

10 Q4 2012 Release Date

All the way back in September 2012, a widely-propagated low-res screenshot of a supposed GTA V retail info document gave a release date of Q4 2012. The screencap was (technically) real, but doctored to add the phony release date. It included other false information about features like a co-op mode.

Obviously, neither of these happened, but enough people fell for it that multiple major gaming news outlets had to put out stories to debunk the rumors, to the resounding disappointment of fans the world over.

9 Mystery Shed Jetpack

Who doesn’t love the jetpack? It was one of the most beloved Easter Eggs of GTA: San Andreas. Many players hoped it would make an appearance in V, but seven years later, there is still no sign of the device in the official game. However, a rumor that emerged before the game even released convinced many players that a secret jetpack could be found inside a mysterious shed on Mount Chiliad.

When the game launched and players made a beeline for the location, they were disappointed to find it was just an aerial tramway station with no jetpack in sight. This rumor eventually evolved into what was known as the “Mount Chiliad Mystery,” an enigmatic mural that supposedly contains coded instructions for spawning the fateful jetpack. In reality, the mural’s instructions refer to a UFO, not a jetpack.

8 GTA: City of Paradise

GTA: City of Paradise was a fan hoax that made the rounds through the fan community in late 2013. Courtesy of 4Chan, home to all kinds of hoaxes, City of Paradise was allegedly created in collaboration between Rockstar and a Bulgarian marketing firm called SocialEvo Network. The source of these speculations were images assets allegedly found on SocialEvo’s website, chief among them a GTA-styled logo with the text City of Paradise.

Fans and news outlets speculated it was everything from a single-player expansion pack, a re-named GTA Online, to nothing less than GTA VI itself. It was none of these things, but an elaborate hoax concocted by 4Chan users to troll fans. “SocialEvo” was not even a real company, and neither was City of Paradise a real piece of GTA content.

7 GTA V For Android

There are enough faked videos and screenshots of various current-gen triple-A titles running on mobile devices to fill multiple articles. Even so, Grand Theft Auto seems particularly susceptible to this hoax. It doesn’t help that many GTA games have had official mobile releases courtesy of Rockstar. But the simple fact is that current mobile hardware cannot run a game like GTA V without serious compromises, rendering the entire exercise moot.

As recently as August 2020, fake screenshots of GTA V running on Android phones, replete with official Google and Rockstar logos, have arisen on the internet and forced news outlets to debunk them. There’ve even been ads, both still and video, for these alleged ports. This may give these hoaxes more legitimacy, but they are usually just a click-funnel into some sort of scam.

6 The Lost City Of Atlantis

This one falls into the sub-category of “mod hoaxes,” where screenshots or videos of strange or hidden in-game phenomena are presented as normal gameplay when they’re actually the results of implemented mods.

When video depicting the mythological underwater city hidden off the coast of San Andreas circulated online, it was presented as an Easter Egg anyone could access if they looked hard enough in the right place. Alas, Atlantis only existed in the game thanks to a mod. It has no presence in the base game whatsoever, without fan-made mods or other add-ons. Sorry console players.

5 Liberty City Expansion Pack

Back in 2016, shortly after the “Festive Surprise” Online update, rumors began circulating that Rockstar was planning a massive expansion that let players revisit Liberty City from GTA IV. Excited tweets were usually accompanied by screenshots depicting GTA V characters chased by police through Liberty City locales.

Needless to say, these screenshots photoshopped GTA V characters onto IV’s backgrounds. It didn’t help that Rockstar seemingly winked at the rumors by promoting Liberty City in what was ultimately just for a release of Liberty City Stories on iOS and Android. For players who really, really want to cruise the streets of Algonquin as Michael, Franklin, or Trevor, Liberty City mods for the game’s PC version are real.

4 GTA Online Money Drop Scams

A much darker side to GTA hoaxes are fake money drops, where scammers exploit players’ excitement and naivete by promising them in-game currency and items in exchange for real money. These scam streams proliferated after GTA Online’s “Casino” update, which flooded the game with high-priced items players were eager to buy.

Scammers created fake gameplay live streams, often using old or stolen footage, promising to invite viewers into private Online lobbies. Once there, they would be gifted in-game money drops using mods. In exchange, viewers were expected to do anything from following the scammer on social media to donating real money. Unfortunately, enough people fell for these scams for Rockstar to have to crackdown, but there’s little the company could do, especially when the scams occurred outside the game proper.

3 Beta-Testing Fishing Scheme

Another real-world hoax with serious implications. In March 2014, people began receiving emails informing them that they’d been specially-selected to Beta test the then-unreleased PC version of GTA V.

Attached was a ZIP file supposedly containing a code to redeem the Beta copy, but it was in-fact malware that enabled scammers to access the users’ computers. It fooled enough wannabe testers that the information security website Trend Micro wrote an article warning users of the scheme.

2 Steven Ogg Death Hoax

Celebrity death hoaxes are as old as celebrities themselves. But when the celebrity is the face and voice of one of the most beloved video game protagonists of the last decade, it hits fans especially hard. In September 2020, a TikTok video claiming actor Steven Ogg, who portrayed Trevor Philips in GTA V, had died quickly spread around the internet.

It got bad enough that the website The Cinemaholic put out an article titled “Fact Check: Did Steven Ogg Die?” The answer was no, of course. Ogg himself hasn’t directly responded to the hoax but seems amused by the whole thing, making an Instagram post captioned “Choose it. Live it. Love it while ya got it. Cause then POOF! It’s gone.”

1 Fake In-Game GTA VI Announcement

YouTube may at one time have been a cesspool of GTA VI-related hoaxes and clickbait, but to be fair these flights of fancy weren’t unprompted. In July 2018, the GTA fan community was abuzz with news that Rockstar had officially announced GTA VI for 2019, via an in-game notification in GTA Online.

It looked reasonably convincing too, with a signature of Rockstar’s official website. Unlike so many of these hoaxes, it was experienced by multiple users simultaneously while in-game. Alas, it was too good to be true. The message was a hoax created via hackers using mods, and Rockstar quickly put out a tweet disconfirming the false announcement.

NEXT: 10 Improvements GTA V On The PS5 Needs To Justify Another Purchase