I have written a short piece warning about these sellers before, and now at last one of them has been jailed!
Douglas Duren ran a number of autograph related websites, one of which was the well known NEautographs.com in the USA.
Duren was jailed for over 3 years in Birmingham, Alabama USA for mail fraud and other fraud related crimes. His websites must have taken in several million $ over the years as they were well publicised and I have spoken with many people who had purchased signed items from his sites.
His is just one of many similar sites that abound on the internet, all of them seemingly have what the collector is looking for and always at a price that is very tempting, but once hooked you have no chance of getting a refund from any of these people.
So beware, and don't let your heart rule your head when looking for that Steve McQueen signed Great Escape piece or Brando signed Godfather poster, as they will only be found on the dodgy websites. You have been warned!
And of course Mr Duren made a lot of money out of his autograph frauds and only received a three year sentance, so no doubt he will be out soon and possibly back to his old ways!
Copyright Garry King 2023