It's well-established that brands prank the public for publicity on April Fools' Day, but it's not always the companies doing the fooling around with their brand images. With social media and the breakneck news cycle, it's easier than ever for citizens to go rogue, David and Goliath-style, and quickly gain a worldwide audience.

The following 10 cases are not marketing, but someone messing around, whether for laughs, for change, or with malice. It sends the targets scrambling to do damage control, but sometimes these hoaxes can result in an increase in social media followers, and if handled with finesse, they can elicit praise from the fickle denizens of the Internet.