How Self-Appointed Experts Rule the Autograph Industry The FBI<http://www.dallasobserver.com/related/to/Federal+Bureau+of+Investigation/>'s Operation Bullpen sting of the late 1990s swept up massive forgery rings around the country. The investigation gained steam when an investigator for Upper Deck, which had an exclusive deal with Michael Jordan<http://www.dallasobserver.com/related/to/Michael+Jordan/>, noticed Jordan's signature on items that he knew Jordan had never signed. Agents uncovered forgers passing everything from "signed" NFL helmets to baseballs autographed by Mother Teresa<http://www.dallasobserver.com/related/to/Mother+Teresa/>. The merchandise bled into virtually every state, leading to more than 60 search warrants and dozens of arrests. All told, the bureau estimated that more than $100 million was spent on fraudulent goods -- some via unwitting outlets like QVC <http://www.dallasobserver.com/related/to/QVC+Inc./>, others through complicit dealers. http://bit.ly/1g44KZX Source: http://www.dallasobserver.com/2014-03-27/news/autograph-industry-experts-wrong?utm_source=Newsletters&utm_medium=email See if people are clicking on this link: http://bit.ly/1g44KZX+ Try the bitly.com sidebar to see who is talking about a page on the web: http://bitly.com/pages/sidebar -- Peter Kurilecz CRM CA IGP [log in to unmask] Dallas, Texas Save our in-boxes! http://emailcharter.org http://twitter.com/RAINbyte http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/RAINbyte/ http://paper.li/RAINbyte/rainbyte http://pinterest.com/pakurilecz/archives/ http://pinterest.com/pakurilecz/records-management/ http://www.linkedin.com/in/peterakurilecz Information not relevant for my reply has been deleted to reduce the electronic footprint and to save the sanity of digest subscribers List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance To unsubscribe from this list, click the below link. If not already present, place UNSUBSCRIBE RECMGMT-L or UNSUB RECMGMT-L in the body of the message. mailto:[log in to unmask]