Maybe it’s only during an election year that Republicans do this sort of thing (generally the purview of the hyperpolitical Left), I don’t know, but that woman who faked being mugged and then, when her supposed mugger (a black guy!) saw her McCain bumper sticker, carved “B” in her face ? well, she made the same elementary mistake that other carving hoaxers have made: wrote the letter backwards.
One advantage of when Republicans fake a political crime is the media are more inclined to follow up and report that it was a hoax. Otherwise, they’ll just let the story die away (remember the cross burnings in Durham?).