Both Bigfoot believers and non-believers agree that many of the reported sightings are hoaxes or misidentified animals.[30] Author Jerome Clark argues that the Jacko Affair was a hoax, involving an 1884 newspaper report of an apelike creature captured in British Columbia. He cites research by John Green, who found that several contemporaneous British Columbia newspapers regarded the alleged capture as highly dubious, and notes that the Mainland Guardian of New Westminster, British Columbia wrote, "Absurdity is written on the face of it."[31]

Tom Biscardi is a long-time Bigfoot enthusiast and CEO of Searching for Bigfoot Inc. He appeared on the Coast to Coast AM paranormal radio show on July 14, 2005 and said that he was "98% sure that his group will be able to capture a Bigfoot which they had been tracking in the Happy Camp, California area."[32] A month later, he announced on the same radio show that he had access to a captured Bigfoot and was arranging a pay-per-view event for people to see it. He appeared on Coast to Coast AM again a few days later to announce that there was no captive Bigfoot. He blamed an unnamed woman for misleading him, and said that the show's audience was gullible.[32]