Scott Weiland Autograph Scam on Butterfly?!?

[IMJ]

In another thread I've shown some pix of my very modest Autograph wall and STP disc collection. I was doing some restructuring today and while working on this I thought I would go online and check out how other collectors have organized their walls.  I stumbled upon an online seller's website called The Autograph Collector's Guild.
I thought "oh cool, I'll check this out" and the first thing I did was search for STP stuff just to see what might be there. Page one had some guitars, page 2 some signed album covers (including No. 4, which I thought was neat), but then I got to page 3 of their STP listings and saw this.
I swiped the image below from the page soliciting this fraudulent autograph for sale on The Autograph Collector's Guild website:

I tried to click on the Autograph Collector's Guild "Frequently Asked Questions" page, hoping in benefit of doubt that they had improperly created a mock-up image or something, but their FAQ link leads to a dead 523 page.  And even if this was true, nobody should be soliciting autograph mock-ups as if that is the signed piece.
I couldn't believe it.

[foou33]

Maybe it's a mock up, but they used the 2018 ST and not the 2010 ST by accident.

[Blue]

There's literally no reason to post a mock up besides trying to scam people. If they had a genuine signed copy they would just post a photo of the signed copy.


If you Google "Autograph Collectors Guild Fraud" and you'll find literally dozens of pages alleging forgeries. The website is unfortunately just one of many that scams collectors.

[IMJ]

There's literally no reason to post a mock up besides trying to scam people. If they had a genuine signed copy they would just post a photo of the signed copy.

Exactly. Exactly.
And that's why I tried to go to their FAQ page just to check, but even if it was, it's like you said...

[IMJ]

Something I mentioned elsewhere too that's really scary - I've got two Weiland autographs that I know for 100% fact were hand signed by Weiland, and they look exactly like the one in the forgery above. Exactly.

[Blue]

Something I mentioned elsewhere too that's really scary - I've got two Weiland autographs that I know for 100% fact were hand signed by Weiland, and they look exactly like the one in the forgery above. Exactly.

Either they have a skilled forger, or the above image is a photoshop rather than a real item.

Apparently the guy who runs this website has been scamming people for over a decade. He keeps changing the name of the business, as well as his own alias, when people figure out everything on his site is a forgery.

[loungefly90]

Something I mentioned elsewhere too that's really scary - I've got two Weiland autographs that I know for 100% fact were hand signed by Weiland, and they look exactly like the one in the forgery above. Exactly.

I was going to say the identical thing. I met Scott in person in Los Angeles in 2000 and had him sign a white shirt. The signature looks exactly like the one above.

[Flyingmerpa]

http://fotoforensics.com/analysis.php?id=1fa9b68f5fadc70642ba3792c0aa98c64d57da43.152187
I ran the image through FotoForensics (a site that can help tell if an image is digitally altered), but I'm not versed enough to interpret the results.   If anyone can use that site better than I can you can at least maybe whittle down to whether it is photoshop versus a hand-done forge.

[Blue]

http://fotoforensics.com/analysis.php?id=1fa9b68f5fadc70642ba3792c0aa98c64d57da43.152187
I ran the image through FotoForensics (a site that can help tell if an image is digitally altered), but I'm not versed enough to interpret the results.   If anyone can use that site better than I can you can at least maybe whittle down to whether it is photoshop versus a hand-done forge.

I can't really interpret that either... But in the end it doesn't matter, everything on that site is 100% forged. Avoid it at all costs.

[IMJ]

http://fotoforensics.com/analysis.php?id=1fa9b68f5fadc70642ba3792c0aa98c64d57da43.152187
I ran the image through FotoForensics (a site that can help tell if an image is digitally altered), but I'm not versed enough to interpret the results.   If anyone can use that site better than I can you can at least maybe whittle down to whether it is photoshop versus a hand-done forge.

I can't really interpret that either... But in the end it doesn't matter, everything on that site is 100% forged. Avoid it at all costs.

They probably scanned a few different sigs here and there and they created jpegs with clear backgrounds so they can overlay a real looking sig onto basically any thing they can shove into a printer. But that aside, I agree about letting that site die from lack of traffic.

But if anyone is part of any autograph collector circles, forums, communities, pass the word on.

[foou33]

Man, this guy has a bass "signed" by all 4 Beatles for $25k. I feel bad for whoever buys that.

[IMJ]

Man, this guy has a bass "signed" by all 4 Beatles for $25k. I feel bad for whoever buys that.

Yup.  This is why autograph collecting is so precarious. It's expensive if you need or want to buy something, and there's tremendous uncertainty.  Basically, all of it is personally questionable unless:

-You had the item signed in-person and primarily for your own fandom and collection
-You bought the item from some kind of widely known, verifiable, and celebrity supported promotion (like PledgeMusic or directly from a Band's website promotion)

I also think that this is something that the modern trading card hobby has done exceptionally well with. When they are randomly inserting signed cards into packs, these are big organizations who are putting their entire reputation on the line.  And so, generally you know that these cards are authentic, with announced signing limits, hologram verification, high production value, etc.  Most people will be comfortable buying those cards for the signatures 20 years from now if they decided to.