...Letter from Steven R. Eichenbaum CEO of CCG 3 3

[picon3]

A Letter from Steven R. Eichenbaum

Dear friends, The Certified Collectibles Group and our companies — NGC, PMG, CGC and ASG — exist to protect the collecting community from counterfeit, overgraded and otherwise misrepresented collectibles. I like to say that we are the “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval” in the collectibles world. Our position as the hobby’s first line of defense sometimes makes us a target for bad actors who try to defraud us or misappropriate the trust that we have built with our community. These scammers are persistent, and we are in a constant battle to prevent and detect fraud, such as counterfeiting or tampering with our holders. CCG has certified more than 85 million collectibles since 1987, including more than 10 million in 2023 alone. Counterfeit and tampered-with holders represent a tiny fraction of the holders in the marketplace, but even one is unacceptable to us. We continue to pursue an aggressive, multi-faceted strategy to combat this scourge. We take a number of defensive measures, such as imaging all collectibles, testing and upgrading the seals on our holders, releasing new high-security holograms and adding variable QR codes, with more to come. We also go on the offense and aggressively pursue bad actors, big and small, across the globe. We will keep the community informed of all of these developments, and today I’d like to give you an update on our legal efforts. In Europe, an individual falsely claimed that he did not receive a return submission of banknotes and tried to recover more than € 100,000 from us. Our team conducted an intensive investigation and determined that he not only received the package but had also distributed many of the banknotes. After tracing these notes back to him, we notified law enforcement in Germany, where we have an office in Munich; in Austria, where the banknotes were delivered; and Turkey, where the individual lives. Austrian authorities took up the case, and two weeks ago the individual was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 10 months in prison. Another incident involved two former employees, one of whom stole comic books from CGC submissions. They had these stolen books, along with some of their own books, encapsulated in CGC Comics holders, and then smuggled the books out of our facility to sell through various marketplaces. We swiftly filed a lawsuit against them and have already been granted a temporary restraining order while we pursue further actions, including damages. We have also filed a lawsuit against an individual and his partner who tampered with CGC comic book holders to replace higher-graded comic books with lower-graded comic books of the same type. We are keeping the community updated on comic books impacted by this incident here. On February 13, 2024, we obtained a Preliminary Injunction Order prohibiting the defendant from distributing, circulating, selling, marketing, altering, removing — basically anything related to CGC-graded books — pending the final hearing and ruling in the case. We are seeking further remedies from the court, including damages We will not tolerate acts of fraud against our community, and we will not rest until justice is served. We have been successful in the past. For example, last year, we advantageously settled a lawsuit against Richard Albright, who perpetrated a coin swapping scheme with NGC holders. He was ordered to report all collectibles that may have been impacted by his scheme, surrender all of his electronic devices during the investigation, cooperate with efforts to reimburse consumers and pay damages. We recognize that fighting fraud that has already occurred is only one half of the equation to solve for a protected, confident and whole community. Staying ahead of the bad actors is absolutely essential to ensure these types of incidents do not continue to happen, and we will take the steps necessary to enhance the security of our services and facilities. We have a comprehensive initiative to make continual, meaningful updates to the security of our products, and will share updates as they are available. Collectors and dealers can protect themselves from fraud in a number of ways: Always look up a collectible in our free Verification Certification tool on the homepage of our websites. All collectibles are now being imaged in high-resolution, and you can compare the images of your collectible to the images that we took. Buy from CCG Authorized Dealers, Official Submission Centers or Strategic Partners. You can look them up using the free Dealer Locator on our website. Choose online marketplaces that offer buyer protection, such as eBay. Do your research and exercise common sense. If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. If you suspect fraud, please report it immediately to ReportFraud@CollectiblesGroup.com. We are committed to protecting our community from fraudsters and anyone else who seeks to take advantage of collectors. We are also committed to being transparent with all of you and sharing information about what we are doing for you. Your passion is our passion. Sincerely, Steven R. Eichenbaum CEO

[RockMyAmadeus]

On 2/19/2024 at 10:54 AM, picon3 said:

Always look up a collectible in our free Verification Certification tool on the homepage of our websites. All collectibles are now being imaged in high-resolution, and you can compare the images of your collectible to the images that we took.

 

Quote

Thank you for reaching out to us. There are limits to the number of searches that can be conducted before the system will flag the user as a potential bot. Quick searches in succession may trigger the system to temporarily disable searches. After a cool-down period, you may resume your search. I am sorry that I cannot provide the specifics of what triggers these protections.

 

Edited February 19 by RockMyAmadeus

[marvelcollector]

Funny, that email from CGC went to junk mail.

[namisgr]

The damage control is in full swing.

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

[Tec-Tac-Toe]

On 2/19/2024 at 1:59 PM, RockMyAmadeus said:

 

 

I tested this yesterday by clicking of comic books from one of my submissions and after viewing two comic books I was locked out.

Limiting the number of certification searches is as useful in preventing the many frauds CGC experiences as encapsulating a comic book upside down.

[LDarkseid1]

I thought it was a solid letter from the top brass. Appreciate the communication.

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

On 2/20/2024 at 1:05 PM, LDarkseid1 said:

I thought it was a solid letter from the top brass. Appreciate the communication.

Which they have pointed out before,  "They did not have to do."

[LDarkseid1]

On 2/20/2024 at 4:17 PM, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

Which they have pointed out before,  "They did not have to do."

Yeah I appreciated it.

Edited February 21 by LDarkseid1

[namisgr]

Missing from the CEO letter regarding the two recent scams involving CGC is the commitment to help the comic collecting/dealing community identify additional possible instances of fraudulent grading.  Specifically, the letter made no mention and the company has made no public effort to provide to the community a complete listing of the certification numbers of every encapsulated book submitted by the swap-out external fraudster or submitted by the in-house fraudster using their access to the facility to make their own bogus labels.

CGC can do better for us.

[LDarkseid1]

On 2/21/2024 at 6:55 AM, namisgr said:

Missing from the CEO letter regarding the two recent scams involving CGC is the commitment to help the comic collecting/dealing community identify additional possible instances of fraudulent grading.  Specifically, the letter made no mention and the company has made no public effort to provide to the community a complete listing of the certification numbers of every encapsulated book submitted by the swap-out external fraudster or submitted by the in-house fraudster using their access to the facility to make their own bogus labels.

CGC can do better for us.

I remember seeing a big list. Anyway, I think they've done a solid job.

[namisgr]

On 2/21/2024 at 11:54 AM, LDarkseid1 said:

I remember seeing a big list. Anyway, I think they've done a solid job.

It may look big, but it's not a full list of the submissions by the swap-out scammer.

[Dr. Balls]

On 2/20/2024 at 12:05 PM, LDarkseid1 said:

I thought it was a solid letter from the top brass. Appreciate the communication.

I agree. For all of us here, it probably comes across as obvious - but it goes along way to acknowledging the problems and addressing them. Better than radio silence.

Personally speaking, I would have preferred that he log in under username EASY_STEVIE_E and register his opinion the way we're accustomed to here on the Boards. Perhaps throw in a picture of girls in bikinis, prompting a warning from @CGC Mike

[LDarkseid1]

On 2/21/2024 at 9:07 AM, namisgr said:

It may look big, but it's not a full list of the submissions by the swap-out scammer.

Gotcha, I have to wonder if they are still compiling that. I'm not too worried personally. When I buy anything I give it the old once over eye test. So if something felt out of place I'd feel comfortable not buying. Who knows, maybe I'll come across one of these swapped out books in the future and can report it as such. 

[shadroch]

On 2/21/2024 at 7:55 AM, namisgr said:

Missing from the CEO letter regarding the two recent scams involving CGC is the commitment to help the comic collecting/dealing community identify additional possible instances of fraudulent grading.  Specifically, the letter made no mention and the company has made no public effort to provide to the community a complete listing of the certification numbers of every encapsulated book submitted by the swap-out external fraudster or submitted by the in-house fraudster using their access to the facility to make their own bogus labels.

CGC can do better for us.

IF CGC's President has no responsibility for this mess, why should the CEO?

[namisgr]

On 2/21/2024 at 1:59 PM, shadroch said:

IF CGC's President has no responsibility for this mess, why should the CEO?

I know you're being facetious, Bill, but Mr. Eichenbaum wrote:

We will not tolerate acts of fraud against our community, and we will not rest until justice is served.

But it hinders rather than promotes the serving of justice to keep the collector and dealer community underinformed about the submission histories of the outsider swapping fraudster and the insider couple printing their own labels and also swapping and stealing.

[shadroch]

How about putting the fees for those 2,000 submissions into a fund for the victims of their frauds?  

[wiparker824]

On 2/21/2024 at 7:55 AM, namisgr said:

Missing from the CEO letter regarding the two recent scams involving CGC is the commitment to help the comic collecting/dealing community identify additional possible instances of fraudulent grading.  Specifically, the letter made no mention and the company has made no public effort to provide to the community a complete listing of the certification numbers of every encapsulated book submitted by the swap-out external fraudster or submitted by the in-house fraudster using their access to the facility to make their own bogus labels.

CGC can do better for us.

I mean they kinda just told us to figure it out ourselves with this part:

 

Collectors and dealers can protect themselves from fraud in a number of ways:

• Always look up a collectible in our free Verification Certification tool on the homepage of our websites. All collectibles are now being imaged in high-resolution, and you can compare the images of your collectible to the images that we took.
• Buy from CCG Authorized Dealers, Official Submission Centers or Strategic Partners. You can look them up using the free Dealer Locator on our website.
• Choose online marketplaces that offer buyer protection, such as eBay. Do your research and exercise common sense. If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.

…even though

1. The reholder scam books were often sold pre-imaging existing on CGC’s site and even if you had imaging available what you’d see is the end product of their reholder. You wouldn’t see the before reholder pictures. Which you would need to identify a swap. 

2. Most of these books were bought by victims from CGC authorized dealers. And also online marketplaces that offer buyer protection like eBay. Unfortunately there are limitations to that protection in terms of time to seek refund. So this doesn’t help very many people.

3. Doing research and using common sense is what buyers paying the premium for a CGC slabbed book are hoping to minimize. That’s kind of the entire point is that as a buyer you had some assurances of what you were buying, that it not only was a specific grade (albeit subjective) but also that it wasn’t restored or missing things. And given that the holders were resealed in a factory way on the reholder from CGC this left no room for a buyer to determine any sort of tampering with the holder itself. 
 

So yeah I found this part a bit out of place to say the least. Not that it isn’t good advice in general, but that it’s not really applicable to the primary scam at play. And no suggestions or help was being offered in lieu of that.