False titles of nobility are claimed titles of social rank that have been fabricated or assumed by an individual or family without recognition by the current or past government of a country in which titles of nobility exist or once existed. They have received an increasing amount of press attention, as the number of schemes that attempt to confer or sell such honorifics have proliferated coincident with broadened access to and use of the internet. Concern at the use of titles which lack legal standing or a basis in tradition have prompted increased vigilance and denunciation.