15 Quacks Who Claimed They Could Travel Through Time

“John Titor” made endless forum posts in 2000 and 2001, claiming to be a U.S. soldier from 2036, sent back to retrieve computer parts. Were his tales of the future true? Or was he a bored lawyer farting about online?

In 1911, Americans Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdai claimed that, visiting Versailles in France, they had traveled back in time and met Marie Antoinette. Were they hallucinating? Did they accidentally gatecrash a party? Or were they just full o’shit?

From 2001 to 2003, millions of people received spam emails from purported time traveler “Bob White,” looking for a Dimensional Warp Generator to get home. It was all the work of professional spammer Robert “Robby” Todino, a deeply unusual fella. 

In 2006, a man named Sergei Ponomarenko appeared in Kyiv claiming he’d traveled from the 1950s. He had documents and a vintage camera that seemed to back up his story, plus an old lady. Inevitably, it was a giant hoax.

A purported time traveler from the year 2671 named Eno Alaric made several claims on TikTok about 2023. Hey, remember that megatsunami that hit San Francisco in May? No, again, the guy’s full of shit.

TikTok is full of bullshitters bullshitting bullshit. One claims to be from 2198 and insists that in 2024 a huge volcano will erupt in Europe “creating land,” and in 2026 aliens will make themselves known. No, it won’t, and no, they won’t. 

In 2021, a man known only as Edward claimed — on, funnily enough, a YouTube channel specializing in time-travel bullshit — he’d visited L.A. in the year 5000 and found it submerged. He had a picture of some water, which proved everything. 

In 2018, “Noah” popped up on Australian TV and radio to share his experiences of life in 2030. He was confident Facebook Watch was going to take off, we’d imminently know aliens and Martin Luther King’s granddaughter will be president. 

A Spanish TikToker named Javier claims to have traveled to 2027 and found a world devoid of humans. Is he actually just filming in places without many people in? Si, eso es verdad.

Another goddamned TikToker claims to be from the year 2906 and possess inarguable proof that the universe is kept in a jar by its creator. He claimed humanity would create its own jarred universe in March 2023. Didn’t happen, fuck off.

A 2003 Weekly World News story about a time traveler from 2256 getting busted for insider trading after turning $800 to $350 million was, unbelievably, absolute garbage. In the early days of the internet, though, people lapped that crap up. 

In the 1970s, anti-Semitic Swiss nutjob Billy Meier claimed to have been taken back in time by aliens and photographed dinosaurs. He had, in fact, photographed a book about dinosaurs. Easy mistake to make.

In the 1950s, Italian Benedictine monk Pellegrino Ernetti claimed his device, the Chronovisor, let him see through time and witness Jesus’s crucifixion and speeches by Napoleon. Eventually he produced a photo of Jesus: a postcard from a neighboring town. Idiot. 

In 2013, an Iranian scientist named Ali Razeghi claimed he’d created a machine that could retrieve information from the future about any individual. He had in fact either invented (a) nothing or (b) a sort of spreadsheet. Either way, baloney.

Washington lawyer Andrew Basiago ran for president in 2016. He claims to have spent his childhood being sent back in time repeatedly by the government to figure out Lincoln’s assassination. He’s also been assured he’ll get elected, any day now.