Extremely High-End and eloborate PSA SCAM going on!!! Beware!!!

[G $MONEY$]

Basketball card yes, but i believe this story/scam is so big that it needs to be on the front page for the safety/awareness of our membership.

The link to the PSA thread on this is below and a very interesting read, but the jest of this story (scam) goes like this....

Buyer see's a good deal on a PSA 10 Michael Jordan RC. $7500 or best offer. Buyer puts in a $6000 offer and it is excepted and the buyer pays immediately. After doing some digging/investigating, the buyer finds the same PSA 10 (Same cert number anyways) on the VCP pricing site but notices the "font" or lettering/numbers on the PSA flip are a bit different. You can see how the lettering on the two flips are spaced a bit different between each letter. Buyer gets suspicious and contacts the seller, seller takes another picture of him holding the MJ Rookie card. The buyer realizes its a scam with a reprint (counterfeit) Michael Jordan RC with a counterfeit PSA flip and mostly likely a counterfeit or generic slab, from one of those "slab/grade at home" places, that those companies use.

Anyways, read the thread as there is much more to the story than what i explained.

Another great reason why to buy and have your high end cards slabbed by BGS. I have yet to see or hear about Fake BGS flips, cracked out or fake BGS slabs. The BGS slabs are just so much more superior for security than the PSA slabs, which are easily cracked and/or faked.

PSA has to be seriously alarmed at this scam. Imagine if a buyer wasn't as "on the ball" as this buyer?? How many times has this scammer/criminal pulled this off in the past?? Someone could possibly have a fake card and PSA slab in their collection and not even know. Actually i would bet money that there are many tampered and faked PSA slabs like this on the market as we speak!

LINK TO THREAD.....

http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=11&threadid=854942

 

[katieneack]

That's awful!! Thanks for the heads up. PSA better do something about this or this could destroy their business.

 

[G $MONEY$]

That's awful!! Thanks for the heads up. PSA better do something about this or this could destroy their business.

Yeah, i think this is very serious. What can PSA do though?? The only real thing they can do to stop this is change their slabs, which i just can't see them doing.

Oh and this has been actually going on with a variety of PSA cards for the last few years, this is just another example/different method of this scam.

 

[MansGame]

Wow.... speechless....

 

[A_Pharis]

This guy (Joey Farino) is banned from multiple places, but he is still operating on others:
http://live.autographmagazine.com/g...pics/babe-ruth-auto-on-1930-s-newspaper-photo

I would have to assume that's him, and the odds of that Ruth being real... slim to none.

 

[A_Pharis]

Ok, I believe that is most definitely him. And he's selling on eBay. This is his auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p4340.l2557&hash=item2eb94ae5ad&item=200677189037&nma=true&pt=US_Baseball&rt=nc&si=ffZAOnW5UK%252FCDhjdFBCI1rnaXg4%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

What is suspicious to me is the font alignment. Compare it to the "Similar Items" of the same card in a PSA flip. I mainly look at the "S" in TOPPS and the "Williams" positions relative to each other.

 

[A_Pharis]

One:

Two:

His:

 

[G $MONEY$]

I would imagine hes making the PSA flips on his computer.

This is very scary if you deal in high-end or even mid-end PSA cards.

 

[jbhofmann]

Pretty sure this has been going on for years with PSA holders. I wanna say that PSA holders "frostyness" changes slightly when they are opened. I can't remember the details but I thought that was a topic on PSA boards a couple years ago.

 

[hofmichael]

These guys have scamming people on Craigslist for a few years now.

 

[G $MONEY$]

Pretty sure this has been going on for years with PSA holders. I wanna say that PSA holders "frostyness" changes slightly when they are opened. I can't remember the details but I thought that was a topic on PSA boards a couple years ago.

Yeah, most of the time when PSA slabs are cracked and re-sealed there will be a "frostyness" around the edges of the slab. Sometimes though, PSA slabs that haven't been cracked will also have a bit of this "frostyness" as well, so that isn't 100% fool proof either. Looking at this slab though, it really doesn't look that "frosty" to me. Perhaps the scammers are manufacturing their own slabs somehow or perhaps like i mentioned before, there are those really cheap grading companies that will actually send you unsealed slabs in the mail, so you can slab and grade your own cards at home and their slabs and slabs from the "bogus" grading companies like Gem and so forth all use that "generic" slab this is very similar to PSA's.

 

[jcmint]

reminds me of the psa wiwag scam. they sold hundreds of thousands in psa slabs that were opened and inferior cards inserted.

By the way I saw a fake bccg slab with a MJ at a show at hofstra.

 

[noaskiecards]

The PSA label is so simple...a cheap little piece of white paper...I'm not surprised..

I mean even BGS holders are probably possible to make, like at a trophy shop or something...but at least there's a challenge...

PSA looks like a scammer's perfect opportunity!

 

[matfanofold]

I think it is time PSA re-invented their slab.

I know there are ways they can make the slabs tamper proof, basicly forgery proof, and still retain the original look. At this point it almost seems foolish for them not to.

 

[uniquebaseballcards]

I think it is time PSA re-invented their slab.

I know there are ways they can make the slabs tamper proof, basicly forgery proof, and still retain the original look. At this point it almost seems foolish for them not to.

Yes, plus they should offer a special to upgrade from their old slabs.

 

[matfanofold]

Yes, plus they should offer a special to upgrade from their old slabs.

Agreed.

 

[jcmint]

could be cost prohibitive for them though

Yes, plus they should offer a special to upgrade from their old slabs.

 

[matfanofold]

could be cost prohibitive for them though

Sometimes you need to invest in your company to secure the future.

 

[predatorkj]

Just another reason grading actually hurts the hobby more than helps.

 

[sportscardtheory]

Just another reason grading actually hurts the hobby more than helps.

Uh, I don't think so. The good far outweighs the bad.