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Authenticity is Everything
"The Great Bono Fraud" By U2spursy / Rudegirl1978
During the last 2 years there has been sold a lot of fake Bono autographs from a seller in UK. First these forgeries came from a seller named “U2SPURSY” and then later a new account popped up, “RUDEGIRL1978” which started to sell the same Bono-forgeries with the exact same style. Both sellers are located in Dunstable, United Kingdom. And IMO both ebay-accounts are administered by the same guy.
This “RUDEGIRL1978” account has since then taken over the sales of most of these forgeries. Probably to “save” his main account with most feedback, in case his fraud gets revealed.
Even though the seller claims the signatures was signed between 2006 and 2017 all of the signatures are very similar. Way too similar than they would be if they were authentic.
The seller appears legit in the listings and writes in every listing where and when the item was supposedly signed. BUT looking at the signatures they look like they have been signed the same day, and NOT in a period of 12!! years . The clear pattern on these forgeries is that most of them are supposed to look like Bono`s “rushed/sloppy” signatures but still looks like they are neatly signed and positioned on the item.
All of these types of signatures comes directly from these 2 accounts or I have been able to trace them back to one of them. Coincident???
Those who are into autograph-collecting and studies a persons signature knows that there are several factors which affects the quality of the signature. It doesn`t take more than a youtube search to see what crazy situations these celebrities are signing in and you can easy understand why a persons signature often can differ so much from a full nice signature to a sloppy line in the worst case. So bear that in mind; how big is the odds for all of these signatures being signed through 12 years, in different so many different situations and still looking so similar?
Here are some examples of authentic bono signatures, signed the same day. still there are variations:
These forgeries are better than the average Bono-forgeries you see on ebay every day. The seller sell them cheaper than they would be worth if they were real and because of that some people actually buy them to resell them thinking they did a bargain. One of them is on ebay right now, purchased by a US seller in his best faith and certed by JSA before put back on ebay to resell.
Sometimes Bono draws sketches/selfportraits for his fans. Not very often but still I have seen several from this seller. Here are some of them compared to authentic ones:
From my impression the “U2SPURSY” seller is a U2 fan. He also sells other U2 stuff and he has also sold a few authentic items. One of them which is for sale now is a signed “Unforgettable Fire” LP which he says he got in person. In my opinion that signature is 100% authentic(even if sloppy).
But the funny thing is that he prices the authentic signed album to £ 129, which is normal value! While he sells a signed photo (fake) from the same ebay-account for only £35.. (see photo). From his other account a signed (fake) WAR album where “Bono” also drew glasses on the “boy” is priced at £65… OBVIOUSLY U2SPURSY knows that an authentic signed album is worth more than a fake and prices it according to that!! But we all know that a fake signature in this case is worth zero.
Another huge red flag is that all of these fake items has ONLY been “signed” by Bono. Everybody who has “followed” U2 and their signing habits knows that when you wait outside the stadium, hotels or even studios to get autographs, it is very likely that also one or maybe 2 of the other bandmembers shows up to sign for the fans. Don`t you think that it is extremely unlikely that absolutely none of these nearly 30 items “signed” between 2006 and 2017 also contains a signature from one of the other bandmembers?
I have added images of those signatures I have kept in my files which are coming from these 2 ebay-accounts. On many of them I have marked them with which year they were supposed to be signed by Bono, according to the seller/forger.
I have also added several images of authentic signatures so forum members can compare and see for themselves, and make up their own opinion.
I really hope this will help collectors from being scammed by this crook in the future…
Signed photos from this seller:
more:
authentic ones:
More fakes from same seller:
And here`s some authentic ones.. all signed in 2015. As you see authentic signatures varies quite a lot..
authentic vs fake WAR album 2015:
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Comment by Roger Bjorvik on September 15, 2017 at 8:54am
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Great post! I have the "Unforgettable Fire" Lp in my watch list on ebay. Not going to buy and suport this seller after reading this
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Comment by Rich on September 15, 2017 at 10:58am
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Wow. One of those sellers I've stumbled upon again and again over the years and never really knew what to make of him. Good work compiling all of this. Like I've told people before, some times you have to step back and examine the whole picture before you really know something's wrong. In this case, the complete lack of variance is the smoking gun.
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Comment by nicolò fabbris on September 15, 2017 at 1:06pm
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hi rick, you can accept the friendship, i have a question to get you thanked nicolò
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Comment by Vestland on September 15, 2017 at 1:20pm
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Thanks for the nice comments Roger and Rick.. Looks like the scammer has already read the blog. He already ended both auctions of his forgeries on both of his ebay-accounts... AND even changed the name on BOTH of them. U2spursy is now "Delespurs" and Rudegirl1978 has changed his name to "Takeaway17"... (will probably soon change them again).
The forger`s name though remains the same.... it`s still Paul...... I`m not gonna say more for now.. -as long he stops scamming great U2 fans for their hard earned money, and refund those he has scammed.
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I see this article has been shared to several groups which has members who are potential victims for his fraud. That is a great and will also help collectors to gain knowledge about this scammer, but also about buying autographs in general.
In addition to all information shared earlier in post I also want to share a link to both accounts so anybody at anytime can find back to his accounts and watch him in case he wants to start his "fraud-business" again:
http://www.ebay.com/usr/delespurs?_trksid=p2047675.l2559
http://www.ebay.com/usr/takeaway17
ID history for both profiles:
A at last, a few of his latest scams:
Here are Rudegirl1978`s last feedback which shows that he scammed people for over £200/ $300 in the last last months. (BUT the numbers are too low cause there are victims who hasn`t left feedback..)
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Comment by Cogo on September 16, 2017 at 3:55am
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This is an absolutly fantastic blog Vestland, great work!
I have followed this seller a long time and asked about his items here a few times too. He's good at faking U2 which makes it even worse.
Here's my little U2 collection if anyone's interested: http://live.autographmagazine.com/photo/photo/listForContributor?sc...
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Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on September 16, 2017 at 7:16am
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Great piece, Vestland. Thanks for all your work on this. If he's selling on eBay he's probably selling elsewhere, too, so people should keep their eyes out for him.
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Comment by Paul on September 16, 2017 at 9:29pm
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Rockawayrecords has a bunch of u2 items for sale!
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Thank you Jan and Steve.. For your information The forger has just released nearly 10 listings on his Delespurs - ebayaccount. This time authentic U2 autographs from his own collection. Some Stuff he got signed In person and as you see with these items he has also gotten other members to sign. Not just Bono as with his forgeries. I guess he`s trying to recover his reputation and make some money in the same time.
I really hope nobody will support this guy by buying from him. He is still a crook and a criminal. And that he now decides to sell authentic stuff doesn`t take anything away from the fact that he has scammed many of his fellow U2 fans. Not the kind of person anybody should want to do any kind of "business" with.
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