Stamp Collectors Against Dodgy Sellers
(SCADS)

eBay News

31 May, 2003

eBay Stamps chat board censorship

With more and more eBay Stamps chat board posts deleted by the eBay "Moderation" team, SCADS member George Kopecky has taken the case against the Saratoga Ring to the top. eBay Trust and Safety Vice President Rob Chesnut has affirmed that he will investigate their activities. Read the latest details here.

9 September, 2002

Is Dave Cunningham the official eBay stamp appraiser?

"Ask the Appraiser" offers an "on-line certificate" attesting to the market value of your stamps, based on scans. Full story here.

30 August, 2002

Signs of change? Con artist nailed quickly after eBay unveils new fraud report form

eBay has established a new mechanism for reporting fraudulent auctions. A zero-feedback user who tried to sell stolen scans of Civil War covers was NARUed in record time. Details here.

19 August, 2002

Frajola petition goes to eBay VP with 200 signatures

Mid-August was full of give and take between eBay brass, particularly Trust and Safety VP Rob Chesnut, and eBay stamp collectors, philatelists, and traders. A disappointing "Live Chat" in which Chesnut answered only canned questions was followed up by a stirring petition drive spearheaded by philatelist Richard Frajola.  Read the latest details here.

News Archives

10 May, 2003

Alterations: Two days after listing over 250 new auctions, Saratoga Ring seller pcheltenham was suspended from eBay on 9 May, a week after eBay Trust and Safety Vice President Rob Chesnut initiated investigations into the alteration activities of the Saratoga Ring.

2 May, 2003

eBay News: With more and more eBay Stamps chat board posts deleted by the "Moderation" team, SCADS member George Kopecky has taken the case against the Saratoga Ring to the top. eBay Trust and Safety Vice President Rob Chesnut affirms that he will investigate their activities.

23 March, 2003

Scams:
"The Spawn of David George Holt", a summary of the aliases and scams perpetrated by David Holt in the last 3 years, is now available and will be updated as more information is passed to SCADS.

A man purporting to be Karl Fisher was reported to have attended the Biloxi, MS stamp show on March 1. Is he really David Holt ?

Oleg Cheboratev is the man who receives the money from all of David Holt's scams. His Curriculum Vitae shows a photo and list of achievements in the last few years. What is the connection between him and David Holt ?

15 March, 2003

Scams: Karl Fisher and Frederik Buwe have been determined to be aliases of convicted book felon David Holt. After his release for prison three years ago, Holt has been defrauding and attempting to defraud the bookselling community under a variety of different names, and has threatened two ABAA members. Holt has now turned his attention to the philatelic community......

8 March, 2003

Scams: Dealers and collectors around the world have been offered high value stamps and covers at substantially discounted prices by persons identifying themselves as Karl Fisher and Frederik Buwe of Switzerland, only to find that the scans have been stolen from various webpages.

3 March, 2003

Alterations: Imperforate U.S. plate proofs are the latest casualties in the ongoing saga of the Saratoga Ring. Reperforated proofs sold by pcheltenham are fetching high prices, and the Saratoga buyers continue to snap them up as fodder for alteration.

24 February, 2003

Fakes and Forgeries: Florida seller atdinvest keeps churning out his listings of modern imperforate sheets of forgeries, which appear to be made from an image of one stamp replicated to fill a sheet. The suggestion that falling prices for the sheets may have led to listings of bulk lots of 6 sheets was denied by the seller.

17 February, 2003

Alterations: The Saratoga Fakes article updated with the latest news on the Saratoga Ring.

8 February, 2003

In response to your feedback, we created the SCADS Supporter program, inviting you to assist our fight against philatelic fraud.  See the Show your support page to learn more about assisting as a Silver Circle supporter, or even becoming a member of the SCADS Gold Circle

18 December, 2002

Alterations: User ID crustaceans (formerly schuylerac) changes eBay selling ID to wackeywood.

8 November, 2002

Alterations: A new Saratoga seller ID to avoid: 32gyt78 is the new, thinly disguised pcheltenham. The current roster of the Saratoga ring's IDs. A look at some of 32gyt78's current auctions.

31 October, 2002

Alterations: ID changes - what new plans does schuylerac have, with the new ID of crustaceans? And stazy4 with the ID of booksnbooks4u! Watch for when the shades come off . . .

16 October, 2002

Alterations: New buying ID tremor111 discovered as part of the Saratoga group - active since mid-April!

10 October, 2002

MSNBC Publicizes Sales of Altered Stamps on eBay! pcheltenham, schuylerac, chickfrdstk, and stazy4 named in web story on conspiracy. "SCADS experts assembled damning dossier." For our coverage on the fraud, including a NEW full report on the scope of the fraud, legal issues, eBay features that have promoted it, etc., go here.

7 October, 2002

Misidentified stamps: Are these the most commonly misidentified U.S. stamps on eBay? These "late" Second Bureaus are easy to tell apart from their more valuable look-alikes - if you can count to 12.

7 October, 2002

Scams: mbaker7662 combines a stolen-scan stamp auction with shill bidding (NARUed October 9).

11 September, 2002

Scams: mabgsl's big con - The blow-off stage ( mabgsl NARUed, one month too late)

9 September, 2002

eBay News: Return of the 'Internet Cert'; Is Dave Cunningham the official eBay online stamp appraiser?

31 August, 2002

18 August, 2002

Scams: chenandcompany's innovation - brokerage without consent

16 August, 2002

eBay News: Richard Frajola's anti-fraud petition goes to eBay with 200 signatures

15 August, 2002

The Jim Lehrer News Hour airs Richard Doporto's interview about stamp fakes and eBay censorship. Richard is SCADS' Forensic Philatelic Investigator (FPI), and owns the eye-opening "Fakes Purchased on eBay" website. Listen to the audio transcript - 9:07 (Richard's interview starts about 5 minutes in).

13 August, 2002

Hialeah forgeries: atdinvest reinstated - re-lists modern forgeries