Ghost in TradeMe mirror

12 November 2017

Categories: Skepticism , Tags: Pseudoscience, Ghost

After a ghost was spotted (opens new window) in a picture of a mirror being sold in a TradeMe auction (opens new window), Wendy McCawe from Wellington Photographic Supplies quickly spotted that the "ghost" in question was actually a picture of the lead character from TV show Outlander. I'm impressed that she spotted it - I put the image through online forensic image tool Forensically, and couldn't see anything.

When confronted with the evidence of fakery in the questions for the auction, the seller said:

"I assume lots of people dressed in a similar fashion in the olden days"

I don't buy that for a second - the image is so clear, and so clearly taken from Outlander, that it looks unlikely to be anything but deliberate - although in this case the fraud was discovered so early that there were no credulous news stories to have to contend with.