Fake autographs on eBay are more prevalent today than during the FBI Operation Bullpen sting a few years ago. It seems that this new generation of fraudulent sellers have forgotten how many people the FBI put in jail during their investigation.
The industrys leading autograph authenticator, PSA-DNA, claims that only 33 percent of more than 10,000 Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan autographs it scrutinized were real. That means more than 6,600 of the 10,000 signatures PSA-DNA sampled were forgeries.
eBay is a prime place to sell fake autographs because most bidders are new to the market and don’t know how to spot a real autograph. Some bogus dealers trick customers by providing a Certificate of Authenticity from their own unknown company. They even create their own holograms complete with serial numbers in an effort to appear as a legitimate seller.
These sellers often have very good feedback on eBay because they ship the items out fast and provide good service to take the focus off the fraudulent autographs they are selling. Remember, most of the criminals who were prosecuted by the FBI had tons of positive feedback on eBay before they were arrested....