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Subtrope of [[Engineered Heroics]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Claymore]]'', villages that don't pay out after Claymores kill their yoma infestations are ''coincidentally'' overrun by yoma shortly thereafter. Huh. {{spoiler|Yes, the Organization did create the yoma in the first place, and the payouts are just a side benefit to their real goal of creating and testing living weapons.}} The Claymores are innocent of this, but some start wising up later on in the manga.
* An example without monsters: in an episode of ''[[Full Metal Panic!]] Fumoffu'', the martial arts club has 3 of their members pretend to be thugs and the other defeat them to impress girls. It works rather well... until the girls all meet and compare notes.
* The debut of Tien and Chiaotzu in ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' has them freeing some villages from a boar monster that they own, until Goku finds out and stops them.
* A variation of this is the bulk of the short manga ''[[Monsters]]'' by Eiichiro Oda (author of ''[[One Piece]]''), where the villains uses a magical horn to summon a giant dragon to raze the cities (so that they can pillage them). {{spoiler|The hero Ryuuma manages to slay said dragon with a single slash.}}
* Early on in ''[[Inuyasha]]'', Miroku and Hachiemon the tanuki do this, with Hachiemon using his [[Shapeshifting]] abilities to become the "monster".
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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* The short-lived ''Sentinel'' miniseries had its protagonist, who had become [[The Kid with the Remote Control]] to one of the titular [[Humongous Mecha]], successfully pulling this on his high school (after teasing a more traditional [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]). Despite his newfound popularity and a distinct lack of casualties, he still has a [[My God, What Have I Done?]] moment afterwards.
* Used in Jeff Smith's ''[[Bone]]'' series. One of the characters starts stirring up rumors about dragons in the region, and gets an entire town to give him their gold and treasure as "bait" so that he can "trap" a dragon. His actual plan is to get as much gold as he can, then skip town when people get too suspicious. It blows up in his face when an actual dragon the characters met before intentionally jumps into the trap and refuses to escape.
* The fame obsessed [[Booster Gold]] pulls a version of this in ''[[
** He gained a rep for this from his time with the JLI and Conglomorate (see below)
* A [[Golden Age]] ''[[Batman]]'' story had an ex-gangster using his underworld contacts to track down wanted criminals so he could capture them and turn them in for the reward. When he ran out of wanted criminals, he started busting crooks out of prison so he could capture them and turn them in.
* Max Lord, when he was running [[Justice League of America|Justice League International]], and his ex-wife Clare
== [[Film]] ==
* The main human character in ''[[Dragonheart]]'' pulls this on a few towns with the help of the dragon he befriended. Dragon flies over, sets fire to a few thatched-roof cottages, and scares some livestock. Hero shows up with a gigantic ballista and downs the dragon in a bolt, where it splashes down in a lake (in fact having caught the bolt safely under one arm, and escaped under the cover of water). This eventually backfires ([[Rule of Funny|hilariously]]) when the dragon lands in a lake that's too shallow for him to submerge in:
** Interesting point with this one is that the protagonist here actually ''was'' the real thing. The only reason he and the dragon started this little racket was because he had run out of dragons to kill; the one he's working with is the last, and by working together in this way the hunter gets to keep his job and the dragon gets to live.
* In Peter Jackson's ''[[The Frighteners]]'', Michael J. Fox's character makes a living by having his ghost friends "haunt" houses before arriving to "exorcise" them.
* The [[Ghostbusters]] had to face accusations of this, in the movies at least. Venkman actually ''does'' pretend to detect paranormal activity in Dana's apartment, although he's faking it to get into her pants rather than her wallet.
* This is the profession that ''[[The Brothers Grimm (film)|The Brothers Grimm]]'' are in before they encounter ''real'' supernatural entities.
* Syndrome planned to pull this off in ''[[The Incredibles]]'', but [[
* The entirety of the ''[[Star Wars]]'' prequels, and therefore the backdrop to all Prequel-era [[Expanded Universe]] works as well. Then-Chancellor Palpatine secretly funds and directs the Confederacy only to justify turning the Republic into the Empire and so he can frame the Jedi. A rare case where the plan goes off without a hitch, with the Confederacy being destroyed only after Palpatine becomes Emperor.
* The Beast of Gévaudan in ''[[Brotherhood of the Wolf]]''. {{spoiler|The members of the brotherhood (who control the Beast) are all local aristocrats. The gypsies that were hired to "hunt down" the Beast work for them and like attending gruesome pit fights involving the Beast}}.
== [[Literature]] ==
* In the first of the ''[[Saga of the Noble Dead]]'' series, the protagonists fake vampire attacks for a living and pretend to slay them. Then they encounter real vampires.
* The short story
* Most fiction parodying/deconstructing ''The Pied Piper of Hamelin''.
** This is a regular con that ''[[Discworld|Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents]]'' pull: rats show up and mess with things in incredibly visible ways. Town hires a piper, who is usually some kid and his pet cat (legitimate pipers are hideously expensive and prissy). Kid leads out all the rats in showy fashion. Kid gets paid. Kid leaves town and meets up with rats to count up and split the profits. (The meeting up with the real thing is also played straight, in fact, it is the main plot of the book.)
** It was revealed that the real pipers pull a version of this: ''they'' started the stories about horrible retributions for not paying them. It also points out he plot hole in the original: rats can swim, and will work their way back to provide future employment.
** Earlier in the ''[[Discworld]]'' series, the human villain of ''[[
*** At another point in the ''Discworld'' series, there's an anecdote about people attempting the "pest" version of this when Ankh-Morpork was in the throes of a rat infestation and people were being paid per rat. Lord Vetinari was asked what should be done, and replied simply "Tax the rat farms."
* The well-known Japanese story ''[https://skdesu.com/en/naita-aka-oni/ Naita
* Parodied on ''[[Late Night With Conan O
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
▲* Parodied on ''[[Late Night With Conan O Brien]]'', where a dog is shown to have a hero complex and creates situations to save people from. After being reprimanded by Conan, the dog looks shameful, but oh so cute...
* Non-monster example: ''[[Big Wolf on Campus]]'' featured a [[Fake Ultimate Hero]], Stormfront, who pulled this sort of scam by secretly engineering disasters, then showing up to stop them. For instance, pushing a baby carriage into traffic with a gust of wind, then rushing in and saving the baby.
* ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]:'' Lucius Lavin did it in his second appearance, hiring former Genii soldiers to "attack" the town he was protecting. [[It Got Worse]] when he started to haggle ''after'' they had fulfilled their part of the contract...
* ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' - ''The Most Toys'': Fajo uses this in a plot to fake Data's death in order to [[The Collector|capture him]].
* ''[[Keeping Up Appearances]]'': [[Villain Protagonist|Hyacinth]] tries this on a golf course, with brother in law Onslow as the monster, ice cream executives as the audience, and her husband, Richard, as the ace. It doesn't work, because [[Coitus Ensues]] [[Making Love in All the Wrong Places|in the wrong place]] between Onslow and Daisy, and when the real threat shows up, Hyacinth herself performs much better as the ace. Hyacinth gets the job offer that she wanted Richard to have.
== [[Radio]] ==
* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' audio adventure "The One Doctor", a conman fakes alien invasions and then poses as the Doctor to defeat them. Then the real Doctor shows up, [[Hilarity Ensues|with hilarious consequences.]]
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
* Covertly introducing termites, rodents, or other vermin to a building, then "conveniently" showing up to provide fumigation services, is an old scam used by thieves to gain access to homes or other properties.▼
* Also real-life dhampir professed to be half-vampire, were typically at least half-gypsy, and hunted vampires for money, food, goods, and any and all favors that a vulnerable community could provide. And the myth that only a dhampir can see an invisible vampire seems to be invented specifically for this sort of scam...▼
* Some malware will pretend to be an anti-malware program and alert the user that the computer is infected with tons of viruses. Then they'll charge money to make the "viruses" go away while providing no actual protection to the computer. They can usually be detected by being massively more obnoxious than any legitimate defensive program.▼
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* The [[Ravenloft]] supplement ''Van Richten's Arsenal'' mentions the existence of charlatan "monster hunters" who prey on villagers' fears, faking signs of a werebeast or similar menace in the area, then showing up to "heroically" defend them. Often, their "proof" of victory consists of displaying the head of a dead (mundane) wolf or other predator they've killed as a scapegoat.
* ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]'' magazine article "Dragon Project" (unusual dragons for games other than ''D&D''; in this case ''[[GURPS]]'') describes Dexter and Cornelius, a conman who works with a naive dragon. Cornelius "threatens" a village, and Dexter arrives to "save" it.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The main character gets accused of this in ''[[Dragon Quest V]]'' - he goes out to slay a beast terrorizing a farming village, only to find it's his old animal companion driven feral after he was taken into slavery for ten years. The villagers assume this is being pulled on them because they don't know the backstory, and they strongly hint that you should move on. One townsperson (a sweet, grandmotherly old woman) ''does'' realize he didn't actually do it, but still suggests he should move on as convincing the others that he's innocent will be impossible.
* In ''[[Okage]]: Shadow King'', the Chairman Evil King started a rumor that the heroes' guild was pulling this sort of scam with the ghosts. It's doubtful that they were, though.
* ''[[Jak]] II'' features a variation. The Metal Heads are legitimately a hostile invading force interested in destroying Haven City... but given the choice, they'd rather just lay low until they can do so, or at least do some real
* In Episode 2 of ''[[Phantom Brave]]'', Walnut falsely claims that Marona was running one of these, using her powers to summon evil phantoms to Windmill Promontory and then getting rid of them so she'd get paid for it. It's a lie, but given how hated and distrusted people with Marona's powers are, the person who hired her believes it without question and pays Walnut instead for the work she did. And this is ''after'' his plan to just kill her and take the credit that way falls through. [[Jerkass]] doesn't even begin to describe it.
* ''[[Suikoden V]]'' has {{spoiler|Euram}} do this with bandits rather than monsters. As an added bonus, the bandit leader was a look alike for the protagonist, adding an extra dividend to the plot.
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** In a roundabout way, this is how {{spoiler|Sin works - while the Church of Yevon isn't ''deliberately'' rigging the cycle of its destruction and reincarnation, they have no problem with using it to maintain their power.}}
* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'', it's speculated that this may be why [[War for Fun and Profit|the architect of the Rikti War provoked the Rikti]], but [[Evil Is Not a Toy|he underestimated them]]. Although with him, [[Gambit Roulette|you never know]].
* The protagonists in ''[[Fear Is Vigilance]]'' decide to help their campaign to distribute free personal alarms by scaring the students into asking for
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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* ''[[Minions At Work]]'' cuts some corners in [http://www.minionsatwork.com/2012/04/minions-318-sales-forced.html Minions #318 - Sales Forced].
{{quote|...And before you say "I don't need dinosaur insurance", and "get off my lawn", I think there's something you should frickin' come out here and see!}}
* ''[[Dilbert]]'' got a [//dilbert.com/strip/2001-03-28 slightly less direct] variation.
{{quote|'''Dragon''': Normally I'm an herbivore, Billy, but when the lights go off...}}
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In ''[[Ben 10:
** In ''[[Ben 10]]'' there was an ex-plumber who made a scam by releasing imprison aliens from the null void and offers his services at a price.
* ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' had this with a fake superhero called Major Man. It turned out he was setting up disasters, crimes, and even monster attacks so he could pretend to save the day and it would look as if the Girls weren't needed anymore. {{spoiler|The girls beat him at his own game by bribing a monster to attack him, forcing him to admit his crimes and that he couldn't handle a ''real'' emergency}}.
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* ''[[X-Men: Evolution]]'' did this with the Brotherhood who, deciding to try the hero thing out, saved a train from a disaster and was rewarded with fame and fortune by a thankful rescuee. They then try to be heroes to get the rewards, but when they run out of people to save they get greedy and desperate for more, eventually starting disasters of their own so they can get the recognition for saving the day. This blows up spectacularly, of course, and [[Status Quo Is God|they lose all their luxuries]] (including the ones they got for legitimate work).
* ''[[Ren and Stimpy]]'' attempt this in "The Boy Who Cried Rat." [[Nausea Fuel|The results aren't pretty]].
▲== [[Real Life]] ==
▲* Covertly introducing termites, rodents, or other vermin to a building, then "conveniently" showing up to provide fumigation services, is an old scam used by thieves to gain access to homes or other properties.
▲* Also real-life dhampir professed to be half-vampire, were typically at least half-gypsy, and hunted vampires for money, food, goods, and any and all favors that a vulnerable community could provide. And the myth that only a dhampir can see an invisible vampire seems to be invented specifically for this sort of scam
▲* Some malware will pretend to be an anti-malware program and alert the user that the computer is infected with tons of viruses. Then they'll charge money to make the "viruses" go away while providing no actual protection to the computer. They can usually be detected by being massively more obnoxious than any legitimate defensive program.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:The Con]]
[[Category:Plots]]
[[Category:Example as a Thesis]]
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