bogus
BOH-gusadjMeaning fake; not genuine
Memory hook BOGUS BUGS: plastic bugs!. Kai sets plastic bugs on the picnic blanket to fool his sister. Lila laughs: the bugs are bogus, not real at all.
The bogus ticket looked real until the usher held it up to the light.
In context The email claimed that Nana Lou had won a free cruise, but the prize was bogus: there was no cruise, only a request for her bank number.
Similar fake, false, phony, sham
Opposite genuine, real, true
From old American slang of the 1800s, in which bogus meant counterfeit money.