Amy, start by NOT returning the items to them. Also, contact the police and the postal police, and see if anything can happen. I've contacted the FBI on my end, but they seem to be really, really slow in getting anything done. I've spent hours and hours and days of my own time, trying to nail this guy. Calling all the charities that have testimonial letters with him, etc. Some have been alerted and told me they'll stop using him, but it's such a slow process.

Amy the Hepburn and Peck autographs you linked to on eBay are obvious forgeries in my opinion. There's a good chance that the ones you think are genuine are not, as well. Glad you did your homework. How did you connect with Barone?

We purchased a signed Abby Road album at a charity auction last night.  I decided to research it and came across your thread.  Now I'm skeptical.  I would appreciate your opinion on these signatures which are supposed to be Paul Mc and Ringo.

Not sure the photo of Paul's signature attached, here it is again

Sorry, but in my opinion neither of these is authentic.

Contact Roger Epperson-- he charges only $15 for a quick opinion via email and he's the best in the field. rogerssd@ix.netcom.com. Let us know what he says!

Gwen,

These signatures are definitely not genuine in my opinion. They look like similar style forgeries to the ones sold by Charity Works, AS Charity Fundraising and Charity Fundraising Packages. What COAs came with the album?

On page 6 of this thread there's another Paul and Ringo "signed" "Abbey Road" from CFP that in my opinion also isn't authentic, and which looks very similar to the one that you've posted.

Gwen,

OK, you've probably got a bit of a job ahead of you, but you should be able to get a refund. I'm happy to help if you want. What charity, and is the auction online? BTW, if those were genuine signatures on that Abbey Road album, CFP probably could sell it to a dealer for $3,000+ unframed.

I've spoken with a board member of the charity (it was at an event, not online).  We are inside the 14 day window in which the charity can return the item to CFP, so our money will be refunded and the item returned to them.  There were also 2 other items on the auction from CFP and the charity is going to contact the winners and let them know that questions have been raised and give them the option of also returning their items.  

This is a small local charity that genuinely had no clue that there are issues with this company.  They read all the glowing reviews from other charities on the website and had no inkling of possible fakes.  They will not be doing business with them in the future.

Here's a genuine McCartney and Ringo signed "The Beatles Story," offered on eBay for $3,499 or best offer. Abbey Road and the other popular Beatles albums are much more desirable, which is why this one's offered for so little:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PAUL-MCCARTNEY-RINGO-STARR-THE-BEATLES-STOR...

thanks, I'll pass along your address 

Why is there a "30 day window"? In this whole incident, which got me "fired" from my "volunteer" position at the Make-a-Wish Foundation, this company of forgeries told the people at Make-a-Wish they offer a "life time guarantee" or something along those lines. Not a "30 day" guarantee. But...just think of how crappy that is. These doctors, lawyers, and rich folks that come to charity fundraisers and have the extra income to spend on items like this, also thinking they are helping a charity, don't usually look online for verification. They assume the charities got this done, because they see the fluff pieces on the news that show celebs signing for kids and taking photos. Yet in 25 years when they pass away, and their kids get the items and want to sell them -- guess what? They will be deemed fake, and it will be the charities that look like the bad guy, while Anthony Nurse (Anthony Barone) gets phat (and fat)...and makes millions. It's disgusting. Almost as disgusting as his fat face is on the one or two photos he actually has standing next to a celebrity (usually at a book signing, where ANYBODY can go stand next to them with the purchase of a book).

Let me also remind anybody that has purchased an item from these jerks -- if as the COA that Gwen posted were really how they acquired the pieces, why not include the photo of them signing said album??? When celebs do sign for charities, that's the procedure. Photos taken at the time of signing. It's odd, because this is about the 20th Abbey Road album this company has had. Just when and where did Paul and Ringo sit down to do this "signing" for "charities."? 

Sorry, I'd rather not.  They are a small charity and mortified over this whole situation.

Steve Viola -- how is it you got burned? And how were you not able to get your money back? I'm confused, because Make-a-Wish told me, they signed a contract that means if at ANY TIME something is deemed to be forged, they get the money back. There wasn't a "30 day" thing, unless they explained it wrong to me. And charities need to realize...it does NOT show them in a bad light (unless they continue to do business with these forging crooks). It baffles me the testimonial letters that are STILL on their website (i.e. Make a Wish Foundation), even after they've been alerted to these losers.

And when getting money back, please, please, please...take photos of the crappy item you got first, so we can later post it on here to warn others. This company has done about 50 Abbey Road albums, about 50 Hotel California albums, multiple Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton guitars. It'd be nice to let others learn from this horrible experience.

All, first and foremost, I would like to say a heartfelt "Thank you" for starting this thread.  Otherwise, as stated earlier, I or my children would have been stuck with a very fake autographed Walking Dead picture.  I contacted the company that hosted the event and they told me they would be happy to take it back and issue a refund.  They then went on to try and reassure that CFP was a trustworthy company that has been in business several decades and that they had used them in the past.  I explained to the guy, that at one point in time Bernie Madoff was a respected businessman too, but I wouldn't want to have been the person that introduced my friends and family to him.

I then went on to outline my concerns.  1) CFP Authentications didn't come up anywhere on Google and the address on the certificate was for an apartment building somewhere in New York.  2) Obviously there were a lot of signatures that weren't even close.  3) If you go to the CFP website, there isn't a  picture of this guy anywhere and when you Google his name, you get just the crap from their website so that didn't seem right.

I recommended that before they send it back, they take it to someone who could try and authenticate it to verify what I was suggesting.  They took the picture and told me they would, "Take it under advice."

I doubt they will, but I do know I have a standing invitation to this event so I will be interested to see if they have this crap there again next year.  It will also be interesting to see if they have another Eric Clapton signed guitar.  (Glad I wasn't the guy that paid $1300 for that or $1600 for the Jimmy Buffet guitar.)  If that stuff is there again next year, I'm going to be tempted to send an anonymous letter to the local news agencies... 

Thought I'd direct you guys to another discussion here:  http://live.autographmagazine.com/forum/topics/mccartney-guitar-in-...  (A-S, Autograph Store, is now d/b/a as Charity Grow) - although I didn't read every comment here, you guys may have already discussed this.

I still receive emails from Autograph Store, advertising there auctions.  The name Michael Tobin replaced the name Anthony Nurse, who originally sent out these emails. I was just wondering if anyone knows if Anthony Nurse is still with this company or did this Michael Tobin take over. I did see that they changed the name of there website to Charity Grow. Anyone know anything about this Michael Tobin?? 

Can everyone do me a big favor? The FBI seems a little slow in responding to this stuff, even though I alerted them. So...ANY CHARITY EVENT you go to, and see autographed items, snap pictures. As many close-up photos as you can. And find out from the event coordinator or whoever is there, which company provided the stuff. That way, we can really start documenting this. Because...at least if the FBI can't get involved yet...the charities will stop ripping off the fine folks that donate thousands and thousands.

Last night Inside Edition ran a story on Charity Grow and their bogus auctions:

Here is the print version:  http://www.insideedition.com/investigative/9306-real-or-fake-rock-a...

and Charity Grow's laughable response: http://www.charitygrow.com/blog/

Roger Epperson and a few others may have someone else to sue...

Bruce,

This article is horrifying and I will forward it to the people at IE and to my attorney.  Thanks for posting this!

My favorite quote when Charity Grow was confronted with the smoking gun evidence regarding the Tammy Wynette guitar:  "Regarding the Country Legends Guitar featured in the story, we have reason to believe the Tammy Wynette signature in question may have been forged by either an unscrupulous producer at Inside Edition or one of the three competitors who appear in the piece."

Here is the website of the "authenticator" who is in cahoots with them: http://rmreal.com   Needless to say, his COAs have never been used by a legitimate auction house. Some of the items he certified are such bad forgeries it would be laughable -- except for the poor people who think they are donating to a worthy cause and getting ripped off.  Must be millions of dollars over the course of a few years. The FBI has to get involved with this bunch of thieves.

Steve, you know they will go through all kinds of twists and turns to try to "defend" themselves.  If Inside Edition recorded the opening of the boxes, the company can say IE resealed the box after placing their own guitar inside.

The one thing they won't do is react in a way a business with nothing to hide would and provide straightforward answers to serious questions.

Good point, Sidney. Well, in case no one from Charity Grow is a member of this site, here's what I wrote about them in our newsletter. This way they know to add me to the people they want to sue:

Inside Edition Exposes Charity Music Memorabilia Fraud

Anthony Nurse's charity forgery scam has been discussed on AML for years. First as Autograph Store Charity Fundraising and now as Charity Grow, Nurse, who's real name is Anthony Barone, consigns millions of dollars in entertainment autographs a year to charities to sell in fundraising auctions, mostly music. If any are genuine, we've never seen them.

Then again, maybe Tammy Wynette did sign that guitar made more than a decade after she died....

Inside Edition keeps America abreast of Nurse's charity fundraising fraud in an eye-popping investigative report airing today. Check your TV schedule for times. Watch the preview now at InsideEdition.com and check their site later in the evening for a web version.

You know what? In their idiotic response...I love how they claim "the competition" (ie Roger Epperson), signed the fake signature. If that is true, all they have to do is show the photo of the guitar before they sent it out. EVERY COMPANY that deals with signs items (especially high end items), would have photos of said item, in case somebody wants their money back for any reason, or damage in shipping, etc. You need to prove what the item is. So, they'd show a picture of the guitar without Tammy Wynettes signature, and then they'd ask how that signature got on there. Nope. Instead, they do that lame thing about discrediting Inside Edition, or talking about lawsuits, blah blah blah. And again, as I told Make-a-Wish Foundation, when trying to warn them about the forged items Charity Auction gave them....show us the picture of Eric Clapton signing the guitar. Instead, Anthony Nurse gave us two pages on how Claptons signature had changed over the years! Yet I never said the signature looked different. It did look like his signature, problem was -- IT WAS NOT. and all he had to do, is provide a photo showing Clapton sign the guitar. He couldn't do that. This company can just have 50 different signed Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and Clapton guitars -- yet not a single picture of those guys sitting in a room signing that many. And, having a photo of Roger Waters leaving The Tonight Show, isn't proof of anything (although they haven't provided that, either).

Lastly, if Epperson was going to do what they claim...why would he pick Tammy Wynette? Why wouldn't he sign Hank Williams...or Woody Guthrie? I mean...do they seriously think the Inside Edition producers would risk their jobs, and jail time, to sit there with Epperson and say "How in the world can we nail these guys? Ah yes, let's sign a name on here of somebody that is dead, that'll get them!" For what? For a 5 minute segment on a show that most people didn't or wouldn't see? It's the same logic I tried to use with the black guys I played basketball with, that insisted OJ Simpson was set up. I said, "Did the cops show up one day and say 'Okay, here's the plan. We're gonna frame OJ today. You bring the gloves. Put one at his house, one at Nicoles. You...you're in charge of the blood. Put some at her house, some at his." And...50 cops (of all races) agreed to do this?  So again, they're response is totally lame, and anybody that has common sense will tell you that. But seriously...somebody needs to explain to me why the authorities aren't getting involved. Using charities to sell forgeries, is a thousand times worse than how the FBI stopped that sports ring doing fake signatures.

Oh, and one more thing. They call Epperson and the others "competition". WRONG! They sell their autographs, legitimately. They don't piggy back off well-known charities and say "Sell them. Whatever you get, we take half."  

This scum bags have NO COMPETITION, because they're the only ones doing this!!!!!

THIS JUST IN!  I was just sent this email. Does anybody know about this company or what their deal is?

The email: Hey Josh, check these guys out memorabiliaforcharities.com (Cherry Hill, NJ). I have never heard of Scott or Michael Bornfreund but this looks like a Nurse operation to me. Even the way their items are framed and matted, the types of items and selection of celebrities/athletes etc...seem all too familiar. The facebook page has more closeup photos. 
 
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Memorabilia-for-Charities/3093945257...

Two links to look at:  (giving the whois online, and then photos of the owners? - do they look familiar?) 

https://who.is/whois/https://www.memorabiliaforcharities.com

http://www.memorabiliaforcharities.com/photo-gallery.html

Here are there signed guitars.  All poor forgeries:

http://www.memorabiliaforcharities.com/autographed-guitars.html

Yep, it's Anthony Nurse again.  I suggest members of this site put on their own charity auctions, get a bunch of fake music / sports items -- and then let Nurse and his cronies twist in the wind when nothing sells because they are all forgeries.  At least they will be out the cost of the fake guitars, etc, and shipping. 

Just got a message from somebody else that bought a fake autographed guitar from The Rolling Stones -- courtesy of Anthony and his Charity Auction Packages BS. That's cool. He'll get his money back, and they'll be stuck with a guitar that has bogus signatures they won't be able to sell. Since everybody Googles now, they'll come across this website and realize they've been duped. 

The past few weeks, I've gotten numerous complaints from people that have purchased items from these thieves. I'll post the pictures here. This is the latest. A country guitar "signed" by 15 artists: 

This was an email I received recently from somebody else: 

Here are the photos: 

Both Springsteen items are fakes (as are nearly ALL items from Anthony Nurse).

http://www.charityfundraisingexperts.com/ is a website that is another alias of Anthony Nurse.  Not sure if Charity Fundraising Experts was mentioned here or not.  Also attached is a scan of the COA they are now using 

If you look up the ph # for the Charity Fund Raising Experts listed on this page:  http://www.charityfundraisingexperts.com/our-company/  you'll find a post on their facebook linking Anthony directly to it, as a customer gave him a pat on the back.  (Thanks Michael Kasmer.... good find, if it hasn't been listed before.... there's been so many I can't keep track anymore. )

-w

I keep getting messages from people that have purchased bogus autographs, in the name of "charity." the most recent person duped, paid $3,000 for a signed Led Zep guitar. Not only does it look fake, but...Jimmy Page hasn't signed a guitar in 20 years, and rarely signs autographs of any kind. Here's the photo: 

Anyone have knowledge of All Star Enterprises in Georgia - http://allstarenterprises.biz/

Prices seem very low for some great musicians guitars.

There's a good reason their prices are so low. 

Most of their photos are too small to get a good look at the autographs (another key sign to watch out for) but I found this Bruce Springsteen guitar on their site that they apparently forgot to resize. Maybe you'll get some opinions on it:. Click for a large version:

Guys, if we can...let's keep this thread to be about ANTHONY NURSE and various "charity auction" autograph sites. Otherwise, it just becomes about all the dealers (and there are many), that sell bad stuff. Thanks.

Sorry Josh...will do.