WIWAG was cracking holders, according to SCD

[Archive]

Posted By: Marc S. 

This seems to be an after-market fraud, as reported. WIWAG appears to have been cracking cards and replacing the inserted card with an inferior one. No PSA personnel involvement...


INVESTIGATION UNCOVERS ALLEGED CARD FRAUD
By Rocky Landsverk

Collectors Universe announced it has helped the FBI with an investigation into an alleged scheme to use its PSA holders to defraud graded-card collectors. The company announced that on Dec. 23, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California filed mail fraud charges against When It Was a Game, Inc. and its principals John Slight and Craig Kreider, accusing the defendants of selling sports cards “by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations or promises that the sports cards sold were of the quality represented.”

Collectors Universe said the charges were based, in part, upon evidence provided to the FBI by PSA that cards sold by the defendants over the Internet were purported to have been graded by PSA when, in fact, they were not. Consequently, the cards did not merit the grades defendants represented them to have.

Collectors Universe said none of its personnel were involved in the alleged fraud. “Collectors Universe, using proprietary security measures that it has developed to protect collectibles consumers from fraud and misrepresentation, helped to uncover the alleged fraud and to assist the federal government in the investigation that led to the filing of charges against the dealer,” the company said in a statement.

Joe Orlando, president of PSA, clarified: “I can’t comment on too many specific details until further notice because it’s still under investigation, but in essence what they were doing was attempting to crack holders and take inferior cards, place them into the holders and pawn them off as real PSA-graded cards, and we were able to catch them.”

“It’s extremely important that collectors are confident that the certified sports cards they buy are exactly what they appear to be,” Orlando continued. “While the vast majority of sellers are scrupulous, unfortunately, a few are not. PSA employs various overt and covert security systems to ensure that collectors can trust that PSA products are genuine, and that persons selling fraudulent PSA cards can be identified and stopped in their tracks.”

Collectors who believe they may have purchased fraudulently graded cards from the When It Was A Game company should watch the PSA Web site (psacard.com) for further announcements regarding what to do and how PSA can help them. More information will also be made available in Sports Collectors Digest.