Stamp Collectors Against Dodgy Sellers
(SCADS)

Scams

23 March, 2003

Swiss image stealing scam: - Karl Fisher and Frederik Buwe are David Holt

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. Read the details here.

March 8, 2003

Swiss image stealing scam - Karl Fisher, Frederik Buwe

In February, collectors and dealers received emails from a person calling himself Karl Fisher of Zermatt, Switzerland, with offers of stamps and covers at substantially discounted prices. The scans attached to these emails were found to have been stolen from various websites. In March, emails offering the same items were sent by Frederik Buwe, who purports to be from Lugano. Read the details here.

October 9, 2002

Seller 'mbaker7662' - 'big con' plus shilling

August 18, 2002

Seller "chenandcompany" - brokerage without consent

Members of Richard Frajola's philately board discovered a set of eBay auctions containing scans duplicated from an Australian auction house website. It appears that the seller did not own the items in his listings, but was planning to buy them in the upcoming auction! Read the latest details here.

September 11, 2002

Seller 'mabgsl' - image stealing

Members of Richard Frajola's philately board discovered a set of eBay auctions with rare and expensive items. The seller's feedback had been built up over a long period with low value transactions, but suddenly many rare stamps and other expensive merchandise was listed for sale.

Eagle-eyed philatelists recognized that several of the scans had been lifted from Stanley Gibbon's online catalog, a major publisher and dealer based in UK. Read the latest details here.