Signed and Deceived

By Pam

Recently, the blog Alex O’Loughlin: An Intense Study did a piece on photo manipulations. Fans using Alex’s face and photo shopping it on to someone else’s body. The issue definitely needed to be addressed, though I read the originator of some of these pictures always stated they were not authentic pictures of Alex. I did one, myself, and always made sure everyone who re-posted it knew it was a photo shopped image. Yet, there are some naïve people out there who believed otherwise by way of deception by a second party. It’s a shame that unethical people prey on the innocent.  

There’s another unethical practice that can be recognized if one only does their homework. Though it gets me riled that some people get away with passing off photo shopped images as real, it makes me even angrier when EBay, and other sellers, sign Alex’s name to pictures and innocent fans pay good money thinking they have a one-of-a-kind.  Granted, these sellers never say who actually signed the photo, so that’s their defense, but these people know full well who they’re targeting.  

Below are a few examples of complete fakes, as well as authentic signatures, to study if you’re hell bent on buying an original. 

  
If you have purchased any of these photos, I’m sorry but you have been deceived. 

Pay close attention to the "A" in Alex. This is the biggest red flag. Second would be the first "L" in O'Loughlin.

These are the real ones. They are from my own collection, so I can definitely vouch for them.

Alex's "A" has a much larger loop, which curls in the opposite direction from the forgery. 

Study these signatures closely. Know the difference between the fake and the real. Remember, also, if an episode airs on Monday (in the US), and by the next week you see a “signed” screencap from that episode for sale, you have to know it’s a forgery. If you see that all the “signed” photos are from the same seller, ask yourself why this person has so many? I’ll bet Alex doesn’t sit for several hours each week signing screencaps and mailing them back to the same person. 

By the way, this is Scott Caan's authentic autograph. His is much easier to forge.