Sydney teenage surfer, Alex Hayes made waves when he posted a ‘shark selfie‘ online, but new claims suggest that it’s all just a Great White lie.

The viral image, which gained international attention has a growing list of skeptics after an image was unearthed which shows uncanny similarities to that of the shark in Hayes’ selfie.

Hayes claims to have taken the image last Thursday, while surfing at (a wave-less) Clontarf Beach in Sydney.

If you compare both of the pictures, the way the light reflects off the shark is almost identical.

According to his Instagram post, Hayes claims “I went for a paddle out front, decided to stop and have a rest and then saw this bad boy”. Instead of panicking when he sighted the shark, he claims he grabbed his GoPro to take a photo because the shark was just a ‘Chiller’.

UPDATE:

Hayes has revealed to news.com.au that the image was doctored and that he and his mates were just having a laugh. “It is not real,” he said. “I thought it was obvious from the start and it was just a funny photo but circulated more than I thought so without acting anything or lying, me and my mate just rolled with it.” – Well played!

This is not the first time in recent memory that a Sydney-sider has fooled the world with a shark hoax…

Remember this one?