I'm here because of my "dead" uncle.

Originally posted by Skyfloating
Moderator-Note

Upon Staff Review, this thread has been re-opened for now. If it turns out to be a Hoax with 100% certainty, it will be moved to the Hoax Forum but remain open.

As it is already posted in the Gray Area, please allow it to be highly speculative. No off-topic posts, no personal attacks please.

Carry On.

But what other evidence do you need? The Op's pictures have been proven to be doctored, his letter was replicated with microsoft paint, and his email was linked to forums ABOUT HOW TO USE PHOTOSHOP! (along with other 3d software)

What else do you need? Are we waiting for the OP to openly admit his faulty story? Because so far I don't see a reason why this thread isn't in the Hoax forum...

I'm kinda in the same mind as an earlier member - that Baggins isn't the hoaxer but the UNCLE is and he's playing with everyone while creating a new life for himself 'somewhere'. Probably got a little bored and missed his family just enough to contact them from 'beyond'... If that's the case, then poor Frodo and all his hobbits. : (

This is obviously a hoax. And a very bad attempt at it. First of all, the letter is written by a chimpanzee. Secondly, the photo's are tagged with total dubious Exif data. Thirdly, he says that "if this is a hoax, I have no part of it"; why, oh why would you sit here and ask other people to help you and not bother to do any work yourself? Like ring NASA and ask them if they did indeed send the letter to you. Instead he just sits there and tells us he and his aunt don't know if the letter was faked, but then can't be bothered to ring NASA and find out for sure. If my uncle was presumed dead, I for one would want to be 100% sure.

The whole story is a complete load of BS. It is just a kid looking for attention for some reason or another. Most likely because he has no real social life.

Why anyone bothers posting fake stuff on here is beyond me, this site is full of computer whizzes that can rip it apart in minutes. Having read this from the beginning it is too much of a "why didn’t you do this " and "but wouldn’t they ...?" It’s like a friend of mine that when telling me a story cuts out half the information.

Anyway not that it needs pointing out again but...

No way would NASA just address you as Daniel, or send correspondence to you as his nephew.
Why didn't anyone question it? You were just like of NASA said he died but there’s a chance he might be found, as if he is just floating about in space waiting to be picked up again ??
Plus the obviously doctored pictures and letters and ahh just everything, but hey it’s the net so you can waste your own time if you want just don’t waste everyone else’s.

I don’t know if you have read many of the posts on ATS but there are a lot of genuinely intelligent and passionate people on here with real things to discuss.

reply to post by eyesdown


Yeah, it angers me that something so obviously fake has taken so many people in. And when he gets pulled up on some inconsistencies, all he has to say is "well, I don't even know if the letters and photo's are fake myself", and then people just swallow it up and believe it.

The first thing that would pop into my mind is calling up NASA and asking if they sent the letter. If they didn't, I would call the police and show them the letter and the email, and have them track down the scum that sent them. Job sorted.

Note to mods: Please throw this in the HOAX bin where it belongs. This is rediculous.

Hi guys and gals, I am new on ATS but lurked for a long time. This did start off interesting but with all you experts, soon was hoaxed. Is it me, or does the second photo look like an artic/antartic landscape with snow? lol, anyway, thanks for letting me join in.......Stingray

I left this thread at like page 3. I can not begin to explain just how shocked I am that it has reached 18 pages. I want to thank everyone for giving me the best laugh I have had in the last few months. Especially since I noticed pages 17-18 are not too much different from page 3.

I am sorry but seriously, if the John Titor story was a movie.. this thread would be the ghetto comedy version of it. Much like "Don't Be a Menace in South Central While Drinkin' your Gin in Juice in the Hood"

ok so, 2 images.


and


Both pictures have almost EXACTLY the same glare / flare effect from photoshop. Take a look closely.
The spacing between the "flare" spots is almost 100% identical. He didn't even bother to skew the angle, or base the source of the glare in a different location.

Chances of taking 2 photographs that long apart, with exactly the same glare = more chance of winning lottery.
Hell, I'm no expert, far from it. But it looks blatantly obvious to me !

reply to post by Neutradol


Yes to easy of a way out to say well someone else could have faked them, may this be the end of this now. Also hes been pretty quiet for sometime my guess the fun has dried out for him.

Ok the last time I post this info. The first image is a screenshot of a 3D program called Veue D Esprit. You can see that I have constructed a 3D scene, it has a starry sky from the program, a planet Earth object in the sky from the program, a sun object from the program, a terrain object from the program ( thats the ground.) This scene took me about five minutes.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/945f18a38e8a.jpg[/atsimg]
Image two
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/717ab29a70b4.jpg[/atsimg]
the scene rendered using Veu D Esprit render engine, I saved it as a Jpeg. NOTE THE STOCK EARTH OBJECT PEOPLE. and no photoshop used yet, I've just hit the render button in Vue.
Image three
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/69ed3ff12f42.jpg[/atsimg]
Is the OP's image...with a picture of the stock earth object from Vue D esprit added by me next to the OP's Earth. NOTE: they are Identical, as are the stars.
Picture four
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6ad927c2c3e2.jpg[/atsimg]
just to force the point home. I finally used photoshop to remove the colour from my simple Vue D Esprit render and added a little gausian blurr. Now, compare and contrast my rendering with the OP's picture.
It's been shown earlier in this thread that the OP uses Vue' D Esprit, he is in fact using a demo version of Vue D' Esprit 8 downloadable from Eon software. He crops his renders to remove the Vue watermark.
These images are a 3D construction, a proven fake and I know how they where made.
I respectfully suggest that this thread be removed to the HOAX sin bin.

reply to post by tonyJ


Well debunked. I hope now people wake up and learn to stop taking info at face vaule. Especially that person somewhere earlier in the thread saying that the pictures may have wrong exif data beause they were taken in another dimension!

Some people!

This thread amazes me... for all the wrong reasons...

reply to post by Neutradol


No ! Really ! I sometimes wonder about people you know, not the brains to make their own tin foil hats, so ready to believe all kinds of rubbish...hence the state of the world we live in mate. LOL.

reply to post by tonyJ




Nice one !

Ive Never even heard of the 3d soft wear.

This thread has been going on for so long not because "it's an obvious hoax", but because it is actually quite plausible. At least quite plausible that the OP is not the hoaxer.

Let's start off with the NASA letter:

First, it should not be dismissed out of hand.

I was a graphics designer for 16 years. I worked both for the government and the private sector, I will use my personal experience to clarify a few things.

-Legal departments create the rules for use of letterhead. These rules are rarely forwarded to the graphics department. When they are, they are usually filed and forgotten. Reviewers also tend to ignore letterhead, they have enough of reviewing text without having to bother with format. Regardless of where I've worked, on any average day I would see at least 5 different letterheads circulating. Often coming out of the same office.

-As for the way it is worded, this is exactly what you would expect if it was written by a senior director and not revised. Any reviewer will tell you they get letters like this all the time. It's normal, the senior director generally writes to take down short notes. Anything else is usually done by a team and he signs or they stamp the signature or use a scanned one.

-Why would the director write himself, and to the nephew? This could happen for many reasons: The Director knew the uncle personnaly and felt bad about the accident and decided to take care of notifications himself. He knew the uncle had a special relationship with his nephew. The Director was against the project and felt personnaly responsible and decided to take care of notifications himself. I'm sure others could think of other plausible reasons.

-Why no folds on the scanned letter? Perhaps the nephew, once he got the letter, placed it unfolded somewhere and it ended up under a pile of books for a few years. The folds would barely be noticeable. At what resolution was it scanned? Most off the shelf scanning equipment will scan at 72 dpi by default. Folds would most likely not appear. And, perhaps the letter was never folded to begin with.

-The aunt's attitude has been discussed. There are many reasons given why she wouldn't want to talk about it. Maybe it simply hurts too much. Maybe she thinks the nephew wants something from her; the full nature of their relationship is never detailed. Maybe the uncle is alive and she knows about it, but doesn't want to talk in fear for him. Again, many other reasons would explain it.

-The email could also be explained away. The uncle could be anywhere and normally not have internet access. For some reason (a guard goes to the john when he's not supposed to, for example), the uncle gets a minute and a half access to the internet. He would not have time to detail anything. What bothers me about this, and I don't use gmail, so forgive me if this point is moot, but with hotmail or yahoo, if you don't use your account for several months, it gets closed...

-As for the pictures, no matter what anybody says about them, the OP does state from the start that they were attached and not his. Although proven fakes, there is nothing to say that the nephew faked them. Perhaps the uncle knew they were fakes, but the images themselves are not the point. Who makes this 3D software? Is it associated with Delta Com? Maybe we're overlooking the message they are supposed to send?
-As for those who say the OP is a known designer, if that's the case, I don't think, in view of the quality of that person's work that they would be able to create such poor quality frauds. It probably wouldn't even occur to them to use a pic that can be made in 2 minutes. It's highly unlikely anyway.

At any rate, I personally believe this is a hoax, but I'm still on the fence as to who the hoaxer is. From the start I've leaned toward it being the OP and the main reason is this: "None of this makes sense to me. I want to find him, and I want to find out what's going on. I have a feeling you are the only one's that I can get the real scoop from." From the OP's first post. If something like this happened to me, ATS would be the last place I'd talk about it.

If it really is a hoax, my hat's off to the hoaxer for having built a story that looks fake while being plausible. Perfect!

Originally posted by ajmusicmedia
This thread has been going on for so long not because "it's an obvious hoax", but because it is actually quite plausible. At least quite plausible that the OP is not the hoaxer.

Let's start off with the NASA letter:

First, it should not be dismissed out of hand.

I was a graphics designer for 16 years. I worked both for the government and the private sector, I will use my personal experience to clarify a few things.

-Legal departments create the rules for use of letterhead. These rules are rarely forwarded to the graphics department. When they are, they are usually filed and forgotten. Reviewers also tend to ignore letterhead, they have enough of reviewing text without having to bother with format. Regardless of where I've worked, on any average day I would see at least 5 different letterheads circulating. Often coming out of the same office.

-As for the way it is worded, this is exactly what you would expect if it was written by a senior director and not revised. Any reviewer will tell you they get letters like this all the time. It's normal, the senior director generally writes to take down short notes. Anything else is usually done by a team and he signs or they stamp the signature or use a scanned one.

-Why would the director write himself, and to the nephew? This could happen for many reasons: The Director knew the uncle personnaly and felt bad about the accident and decided to take care of notifications himself. He knew the uncle had a special relationship with his nephew. The Director was against the project and felt personnaly responsible and decided to take care of notifications himself. I'm sure others could think of other plausible reasons.

-Why no folds on the scanned letter? Perhaps the nephew, once he got the letter, placed it unfolded somewhere and it ended up under a pile of books for a few years. The folds would barely be noticeable. At what resolution was it scanned? Most off the shelf scanning equipment will scan at 72 dpi by default. Folds would most likely not appear. And, perhaps the letter was never folded to begin with.

-The aunt's attitude has been discussed. There are many reasons given why she wouldn't want to talk about it. Maybe it simply hurts too much. Maybe she thinks the nephew wants something from her; the full nature of their relationship is never detailed. Maybe the uncle is alive and she knows about it, but doesn't want to talk in fear for him. Again, many other reasons would explain it.

-The email could also be explained away. The uncle could be anywhere and normally not have internet access. For some reason (a guard goes to the john when he's not supposed to, for example), the uncle gets a minute and a half access to the internet. He would not have time to detail anything. What bothers me about this, and I don't use gmail, so forgive me if this point is moot, but with hotmail or yahoo, if you don't use your account for several months, it gets closed...

-As for the pictures, no matter what anybody says about them, the OP does state from the start that they were attached and not his. Although proven fakes, there is nothing to say that the nephew faked them. Perhaps the uncle knew they were fakes, but the images themselves are not the point. Who makes this 3D software? Is it associated with Delta Com? Maybe we're overlooking the message they are supposed to send?
-As for those who say the OP is a known designer, if that's the case, I don't think, in view of the quality of that person's work that they would be able to create such poor quality frauds. It probably wouldn't even occur to them to use a pic that can be made in 2 minutes. It's highly unlikely anyway.

At any rate, I personally believe this is a hoax, but I'm still on the fence as to who the hoaxer is. From the start I've leaned toward it being the OP and the main reason is this: "None of this makes sense to me. I want to find him, and I want to find out what's going on. I have a feeling you are the only one's that I can get the real scoop from." From the OP's first post. If something like this happened to me, ATS would be the last place I'd talk about it.

If it really is a hoax, my hat's off to the hoaxer for having built a story that looks fake while being plausible. Perfect!

The OP is the hoaxter.... and a terrible one at that. You don't even need to question any of the pictures or story or emails or letters. It is simple. He goes on and on about him and his aunt not knowing if this is fake or not and he states that if it is a fake, he didn't do it. How stupid is that?

It's simple. Why doesn't he ring NASA and ask them if they sent the letter? He hasn't. Instead, he has came here and spewed out his fairytale for all the gullible people to believe.

ONE simple phone call to NASA would clarify the whole situation. And if NASA didn't send any letter.... that's when you call the police. But they must have forgot about that, huh? One thing is clear: whoever hoaxed this has the brain the size of a pea and needs to see a psychiatrist pronto.

The OP is probably laughing at ATS on how ecstatic we reacted to this BS. Can't deny the fact that his story was plausible. Thanks to the digital artists we have here at ATS, debunking has been made easy, but not quite since it took 13 pages. lol. I myself is a graphic designer/digital artist, but these imagery and proof were pretty hard to tell that I refused to prove my claims. Nice job OP, you made us look stupid for a few minutes.

OK, shortly - only two possibilities - don't want to point them out in detail as personal information is involved.. However, in both scenarios the OP is the hoaxer and there is quite a lot of evidence. He either wasn't bright enough and used his own physical address in the NASA letter, OR, he has hacked the e-mail of someone from that same residence which in itself isn't a very smart thing to do... Especially if one decides to hoax with such information.

The documents and photos are simply far from worth talking about.

Overall, poor attempt, wondering why this hasn't hit the hoax section yet, wasn't it about time already?!? And imo such hoaxers don't have a place in this forum (and can't help noticing the OP is rather talkative on other threads after he decided the case about finding his uncle is not worth the time), not that I am anyone to judge... But I think there's more than enough for the mods to finally thrash this BS thread. Wasted too much air on it already.

nice work tony j, a resourcefull man you are.
and to the op, you really deserve to loose your uncle, you really do.