hoax

1. An act intended to deceive or trick.
2. Something that has been established or accepted by fraudulent means.
3. Something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage.
4. An act intended to trick people into believing something is real when it is not.
5. Subject to a playful joke.

Hoax is believed to be hocus spoken quickly and there is also hokum, which is a blend of hocus-pocus and "bunkum" or "bunk".

1. To fool or deceive; to hoax.
2. Somone who cheats or deceives.
3. To infuse (food or drink) with a drug; to stupefy with drugged liquor.
4. To adulterate; to drug; as, liquor is said to be hocused for the purpose of stupefying the drinker.

1. Nonsense words or phrase used as a formula by quack conjurers.
2. A trick performed by a magician or juggler; sleight-of-hand.
3. Foolishness or empty pretense used especially to disguise deception or chicanery.
4. To play tricks on; to deceive.

There is no real proof that hocus-pocus is a blasphemous corruption of the first words of the consecration in the Catholic Mass, Hoc est corpus, "This is the body", but there are those who believe that the term is simply what the Oxxford Dictionary calls a "sham (fraud) Latin" phrase invented by a magician to distract the audience while working his legerdemain (sleight of hand; show of skill or deceitful cleverness).