TOPIC: Alert! Fake Tokens...

Wow, bad news, I feel terrible for the victim. I've never seen a fake token as far as I know. It's difficult to know how far back in the chain of custody the forgery happened, but I hope that the forgers can be identified and prosecuted.

I think it might be really helpful to know how these were determined to be fake. What to look for.

Matthew Hayward wrote:

cdsmith wrote: ...the graphics are nice and sharp. Colors should not vary with in a print year.

I'm not sure this is reliable advice - I have lots of mundane tokens with varying print qualities / blurriness to them. Things like uncommon healing potions that no one would bother counterfeiting. Kirk sold a Charm of Sweet Air on eBay which was noticeably different in coloration from the standard version, which I presume he opened himself from a factory pack.

I definitely have lots of trade items which look very different from one another:

This image is hidden for guests.
Please log in or register to see it.

bismuth

The one on the right is noticeably more saturated color-wise than the one on the left. I'm pretty sure both of these came from True Dungeon - so I doubt either are counterfeit.

Good points! I forgot about the variation of the trade tokens. I never even questioned the trade tokens as I figured that they were printed in different years.

One major thing to test is the top coating. You'd have to actually dig through the plastic to reach the colored area. If you can scratch the color off the token with a light scratch it's fake.

MetaphoricDragon wrote: I think it might be really helpful to know how these were determined to be fake. What to look for.

I FULLY agree with this statement.

I was the victim of this fraud.

I purchased many of the tokens from what I believed to be trusted sources on these forums and on Ebay, from folks that frequent these forums. It's likely the folks selling them were not aware of the authenticity of them either.

The real problem I have is that one of the tokens came as part of a $1K order directly from True Adventures. Jeff, if your own staff is sending out fraudulent tokens, how can you expect us to know they're fakes?

I am very unhappy, and I will be contacting the involved parties for a refund.

Thanks for everyone's concern, and hopefully I can get this resolved in a timely manner.

Josh Coopman wrote: I purchased many of the tokens from what I believed to be trusted sources on these forums and on Ebay, from folks that frequent these forums. It's likely the folks selling them were not aware of the authenticity of them either.

Wow, that sucks. Josh I had a panic and looked through your history with me and as far as I can tell you didn't buy any Rod segments from me, but let me know if I missed anything.

Jeff, I understand that you might not want to publicize how you know they were fake, however as somebody who buys lots of tokens both directly from True Dungeon and also from other sellers, and then resells them, I'd love to know how to identify if I have any fakes. I feel like I would notice but then again I don't know what I'm looking for.

Best of luck, Josh.

I have heard anecdotal stories that in past years there have been a few instances of fake tokens but they were obviously fakes and typically "hidden" within a stack of legitimate tokens.

I sincerely hope the sophistication of the fakes has not reached the point where it becomes hard to distinguish them from genuine tokens.

I'd still like to know who the forgers are, or at least who transacted fake tokens.

It sounds like Josh knows who he got the fakes from. We should all know.

Also - did I read that wrong or did you say you got a fake directly from TD?

That one will defy explanation until we hear more details.

According to Jeff in an email:

"We believe that 6 of the tokens are not authentic… Seg. 2-7 tokens."


Big thank you to Lazlo who has already pro-actively refunded my money for Segment 3!

Segment 1 (the only legitimate one according to Jeff) was also purchased from Laz.


Disbeeleaf, I will allow the involved parties a few days to 'make it right' before outing them to the Forums. I will, however, mention any refunds I get in this thread so folks are aware of who is trying to do the right thing.


Thanks everyone.

Josh Coopman wrote: According to Jeff in an email:

"We believe that 6 of the tokens are not authentic… Seg. 2-7 tokens."


Big thank you to Lazlo who has already pro-actively refunded my money for Segment 3!

Segment 1 (the only legitimate one according to Jeff) was also purchased from Laz.


Disbeeleaf, I will allow the involved parties a few days to 'make it right' before outing them to the Forums. I will, however, mention any refunds I get in this thread so folks are aware of who is trying to do the right thing.



Thanks everyone.

I am trying to remember who I got it from.

Disbeeleaf wrote: I'd still like to know who the forgers are, or at least who transacted fake tokens.

It sounds like Josh knows who he got the fakes from. We should all know.

I don't think it's helpful or productive to name and shame a seller if they are apparently acting in good faith, may have been a victim themselves in the chain of custody of a fraudulent token, and who will make the buyer whole.

Now - if there is a reason to believe the seller is acting in bad faith, then by all means alerting the community could be helpful.

I think it's too soon to be lighting the torches and gathering the pitchforks.

I understand that the seller of the fake may not be the original producer of the fake.

It's going to be a source tracing exercise.