Ebay Pennsylvania forger gets 33 months federal time YAY!!

[barrysloate]

What Jim recognizes, and I've thought about this too, is that CC clearly understands what it takes to run a business of this nature for so long without being shut down. I am mystified about how they do it, but one thing they are really good at is staying in business.

[drc]

Always remember that just because people get away with something for a while, doesn't mean they get away with it forever. Continually doing new crimes means continually creating new chances to get caught. Just ask John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Bernie Madoff, Baby Face Nelson, Al Capone, et al. .

[danc]

The forger is the key as he produces the product, but the authenticator is just as important to entice a fraudulent sale as even the uneducated consumer understands a degree of risk when purchasing an autograph, but if it comes with a certificate from a handwriting expert, forensic or one of those outfits that exist to pass what everyone else fails, this may sway them to trust the seller.

If you are uneducated, can't you see why someone would purchase something with the assumption it's authentic when you hear useless words like: CERTIFIED! GUARANTEED! 100% AUTHENTIC! EXPERTS!

This convicted seller (hurrah!) got perhaps an extreme sentence because of stupidity. Buy from one and sell on the other? But he is one of hundreds and hundreds that make a living on eBay in exact same fashion. But getting one is better than getting none, so this is a good thing for the hobby. A start, and hoping that others follow on the blotter sheets. And perhaps sway people to stop selling forgeries and perhaps this will bring attention to fraudulent auction houses, sellers and authenticators who have survived way too long and passed so much crud into the collecting community that will remain in collections and passed forth for the time we are on earth. Forgeries never find the trash bin. They get passed on to dumber people.

DanC

[tinkereversandme]

I don't follow the comparison with the notorious criminals and autograph fraud.

In those instances, they actually did harm to people or did something more serious than autograph fraud. Murder. Robbing banks. Madoff ruined lives.

People awoke with hope that their investments would take them into retirement (with trust) and the next day, all they had worked hard for was gone and their lives were in peril. That doesn't happen with autograph fraud unless you invest heavily on the trust of an unworthy outfit and if your investment portfolio consists of autographs, then that's a whole other matter.

And how long has CC been in business? Over twenty years, right?

Back to the this thread, it shows that there is hope and that something is being done which is fantastic and I hope the Government recognizes that this is a serious issue and that more is done in the future.

Regards,
Larry