History Main / TrickedIntoSigning

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Droopy}}'' cartoon "The Chump Champ", a competitor in a sports contest set up a fake psychic reading tent and asked for Droopy's signature to get a reading off it. Turns out he tricked Droopy into signing a document confessing to cheating and forfeiting.

* ''Series/TheOprahWinfreyShow'': In a special animated segment where Oprah visits [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons the Simpson family]], Lisa gives her a piece of paper to write her autograph, but Oprah quickly realizes she's trying to get herself adopted by her. "It's nice and legal, I assure you."
* ''Series/TheDailyShowWithTrevorNoah'': When discussing Lori Loughlin signing autographs outside her hearing Trevor proposes that the attorneys should approach her as fans looking for an autograph and then reveal she's signed a confession.
* ''Series/{{Blackadder}} Christmas Carol'' has Blackadder sentenced to death [[ItMakesSenseInContext for not having a Christmas present]]. For a last request, he asks the Queen and [[SitcomArchNemesis Lord Melchett]] to sign a piece of paper, which turns out to be a death warrant [[ChekhovsGun Baldrick gave him earlier]], with Melchett’s name on the “person being executed” line and the Queen’s on the authorisation line. The Queen is so impressed by his trick she decides to go ahead with the execution of Melchett and pardon Blackadder.
* Series/MiraiSentaiTimeranger and Series/PowerRangersTimeForce have this happen in their movie-making episode, wherein they face a RealityWarper, director-themed monster. What’s significant isn’t who signed it, but what was signed (the final page of said monster’s script, allowing the Rangers to do their own RevisedEnding).
* In one episode of ''Series/AdamTwelve'', Reed and Malloy answer a call about a business dispute that's disturbing the peace, and arrive at HonestJohnsDealership, where a car dealer has tricked a customer who speaks very little English into signing a contract purchasing the car by passing it off as a waiver in case of accident during the test drive. The dealer's secretary had placed the call, and after Reed and Malloy persuade the dealer to release Mr. Diaz from the contract SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome occurs; they give the secretary a calling card for the detective bureau.
->'''Malloy''': Ask for Lieutenant Jacobs in Bunco [Division]. He'll be interested in the way Moore does business.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': In "[[Recap/GravityFallsS1E11LittleDipper Little Dipper]]", Lil' Gideon tries to trick Stan into signing away the deed to the Mystery Shack by hiding it in [[GiantNoveltyCheck a giant novelty sweepstakes check]]. Stan was onto him and signed it "Go suck a lemon, little man."

It's not uncommon to common law jurisdictions to provide further protections against malicious contracts. For instance if a contract was clearly written in a manner to obfuscate part of the contract, such as via [[ReadTheFinePrint excessively small print]] that signer may not be held to that section. Similarly if a section of a contract is so blatantly one sided that it's clear the signer would not have agreed to it if they were aware of it that section may be excluded. So, for example, just because you slip a paragraph into your rental agreement saying the signer will give you all their worldly possessions and agrees to become your slave doesn't necessarily mean the court's will enforce it. Of course the exact laws and degree of protection offered vary between jurisdictions, so it's best to read any contract closely just in case.

It should be noted that [[UsefulNotes/TheCommonLaw Common Law]] provides certain protections against being tricked when entering an agreement. Countries who's legal system are based of of common law, such as the USA, UK, and Canada, will generally carry over these same protections. It's usually safe to presume a common law jurisdiction will not hold an individual to a contract if it can be proven that someone lied about the content of the contract, the signer lacked the ability to understand it, for example if their grasp of the language the contract was written in is too weak to fully comprehend the contract, or if someone signed the contract under duress or when too rushed to have time to actually read it.

* In one episode of ''Series/AdamTwelve'', Reed and Malloy answer a call about a business dispute that's disturbing the peace, and arrive at HonestJohnsDealership, where a car dealer has tricked a customer who speaks very little English into signing a contract purchasing the car by passing it off as a waiver in case of accident during the test drive. The dealer's secretary had placed the call, and after Reed and Malloy persuade the dealer to release Mr. Diaz from the contract RealityEnsues they give the secratary a calling card for the detective bureau.

* An autograph request is used to get Eddie Cantor to sign a contract in ''Thank Your Lucky Stars'' (1943).

* In the episode "The Signature" of ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', Richard learns that his mother is getting married to Louie and moving to Florida. To prevent this, Richard tells Louie to sign a wedding guest list that's actually adoption papers--ones that make Louie Richard's ''son'', and thus gives him the authority to forbid Louie from seeing his fiancé anymore. Louie takes revenge by telling Richard's wife to sign school enrollment papers that make her ''his'' daughter so she has to obey the command of not seeing Richard anymore.

** The protagonist herself ends up falling for this trope this time because [[spoiler:the contract doesn't even look like a contract]].

* On ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines'', in the episode "Home Sweet Homing Pigeon", Dick Dastardly asks Muttley, Klunk and Zilly to sign his memory book. They actually signed four-year enlistment renewals.

* In an ''Franchise/{{Archie Comic|s}}'', Reggie decides to write up a petition protesting litter on the beach. Archie is eager to be the first to sign it, so Reggie has him sign it with a nice and large signature before he's even drawn up the petition content. Evil-hearted Reggie then writes up a love note to an anonymous girl. With Archie's signature below it, the note is sure to unleash Betty and Veronica's wrath.

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/WabbitALooneyTunesProduction https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wabbit_autograph.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:That's one way to get a transfer contract signed.]]

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* There was an old series of advertisements for a mobile phone service where an American filmstar is tricked into autographing a document that basically agrees to make him a skanky woman's slave. "Get more minutes without signing your life away."

* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice'' has this happen to Trucy in the 2nd case. A TV producer asks Trucy to sign a contract for her magic show to be televised on his network and she does so. Later on, the same producer starts demanding several million dollars in compensation because Trucy's show ended in disaster due to her accidentally murdering someone on stage and that she's responsible for it due to her signing the contract with those clauses. Apollo doesn't buy it because he knows Trucy would never sign such a contract. [[spoiler: And he is right. The contract Trucy signed was on carbon paper, which copied her signature on a different contract behind it and she had no knowledge of it. She also didn't kill the victim. It was all done by the producer to get Trucy's life ruined due to what her grandfather did to him in the past.]]

* Attempted in the Creator/TimothyZahn novel ''The Manta's Gift''. Unfortunately for the villain, the person they try this on (in order to implicate him in a fictitious rebellion against the government) is ''far'' to clever for them and makes them look like idiots: he signs it left-handed (so the signature doesn't match his handwriting) while wearing gloves (so his fingerprints and DNA aren't on the paper) using the name of a corporate mascot instead of himself. When they try to use the "signed" paper against him without having double-checked it, they're completely discredited.

* Alexander Courage, the composer for the theme to ''Series/StarTrek'' signed what he thought was a boilerplate document about using his music on the show. When the first season ended, he found out that he had agreed, through the document, to have Creator/GeneRoddenberry write lyrics to the theme. This meant that half the profits from the first season were given to Roddenberry, even though the lyrics were never meant to be sung on the show. Courage never wrote any more music for the series.