False brinelling was first mentioned by Almen in 1937. Almen found that wheel bearings were damaged before they were used by customers. Furthermore, he found that the bearings were more damaged for long-distance shipping of the cars and that the season of shipping also had an influence. The reason for the damaged bearings were micro-oscillations which occurred due to the shipping.  The small oscillations result in fatigue cracking, followed by release of particles that subsequently start to abrasively damage the contact area between a ball and the bearing race, resulting in a typical wear damage.  Because the damage has a similar look to brinelling, it was called false brinelling.
Although the car-delivery problem has been solved, there are many modern examples.  A major maintenance problem are the pitch bearings in wind turbines, for which specialty greases had to be developed that result in almost no false brinelling damage.   Similar damage may also occur in electric and electronic contacts that are subjected to vibrations during use, think of aerospace and automotive connectors and even remote control battery compartments. Although the damage in these areas may not be as severe as the false brinelling in bearings, the damage mechanisms are similar and result in the creation of particles in the contact that can severely influence the electrical connection.
Also, generators or pumps may fail or need service because of this damage, so it is common to have a nearby spare unit which is left off most of the time but brought into service when needed. Surprisingly, however, vibration from the operating unit can cause bearing failure in the unit which is switched off. When that unit is turned on, the bearings may be noisy due to damage, and may fail completely within a few days or weeks even though the unit and its bearings are otherwise new.  Common solutions include: keeping the spare unit at a distance from the one which is on and vibrating; manually rotating shafts of the spare units on a regular (for example, weekly) basis; or regularly switching between the units so that both are in regular (for example, weekly) operation.
Until recently, bicycle headsets tended to suffer from false brinelling in the "straight ahead" steering position, due to small movements caused by flexing of the fork.  Good modern headsets incorporate a plain bearing to accommodate this flexing, leaving the ball race to provide pure rotational movement.  
Bearings of modern wind turbines are often affected by false brinelling. Especially the pitch bearing, which is used under oscillation, shows often false brinelling damages.