Buyers beware!

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Came across a nasty little scam the other day, which seems to be targetting victims of False Jonathan Memory Syndrome.

Basically, someone has apparently faked up various "Jonathan Levinson" items including a poster for The Matrix, various CDs, etc., and is offering them on eBay at inflated prices. I'm not sure where the pictures come from, the most likely answer is someone who looks a little like him plus Photoshop. Unfortunately I can't point at an example now because eBay seems to have pulled the plug on the last couple I noticed, but here's an image I copied, allegedly from Jonathan's "Live at Caesar's Palace" album:



I'm reliably informed that the background is (a) heavily manipulated and (b) not Caesar's Palace, I have no idea what it is beyond that. The songs listed were a medly that I think would mostly be Tom Jones recordings, unfortunately I didn't take notes. I think it's likely that the disk, if it actually existed, was simply a pirated Tom Jones album with a different cover and label.

Anyway, this sort of thing is probably going to happen again, so be warned - there are NO authentic examples of this sort of material!

Any other examples of fake Sunnydale-related material surfacing?

Comments

[deird1]

I've seen someone on eBay selling photos of a giant snake superimposed on Sunnydale's main street. Supposedly from November 2000.

But they weren't getting any bids, unsurprisingly. Very obvious fake.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Giant snake? WTF was that supposed to be about?

[deird1]

Oh, you know, all the rumours about the high school.
(This photo was supposedly two years later, so I don't know quite what they were going for, there.)

But there have "snake" discussions about Sunnydale for years. Not just the graduation - I've heard people mention snakes in the school lunches, snakes tunneling under the road (however that works), and snakes in frat houses...

I guess this eBay guy was just trying to get in on the action. *shrugs*

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Oh, I remember the snakes in the dining hall thing and the silly frat house story, couldn't remember anything about the main street.

[dsample.livejournal.com]

Late in 2000 there were reports of a giant snake slithering through the streets of Sunnydale, with this picture given as "proof":

http://homepage.mac.com/dsample/Stuff/SunnydaleSnake.jpg

Next spring there were reports of a freak lighting storm blowing a hole in the middle of main street, with this picture given as "proof":

http://homepage.mac.com/dsample/Stuff/SunnydaleLightning.jpg

Note the exact same camera angle, the exact same car, the exact same puddle under it, the exact same person running away in the lower left of the image...

Both images are pretty obvious fakes, with the differences being created in photoshop, or some other such software.

The collapse that caused the hole (which was apparently real) might have been a precursor to the collapse which ultimately doomed the city.

[ponderoid.livejournal.com]

I've seen similar fakes posted to alt.binaries.* groups. The last time I saw some show up, I eagerly downloaded them, only to discover they were relabeled songs by Royal Crown Revue.

*** Ponder

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Doesn't surprise me in the least. Whatever caused FJMS (False Jonathan Memory Syndrome) was fairly obviously an event on some sort of psychic / psionic level, not anything that left physical evidence behind.