A quick heads up – from a seller on eBay, out of Spain of all places, is offering up the following patch from old New York lodge 500 – Ona Yote Kaonaga (proper spacing for the lodge name):

Click on the image to get an expanded look. It is not the original, which can be seen on the OA Images site.

Notice that the original is on twill right rough (TRR) as well as swiss-style embroidery. The seller of the fake, pwaitor29, titles his listing:

O NA YOTE KA O NAGA LODGE 500 SCOUT PATCH

No where does he mention its a modern patch or a fake. Buyer beware. This is not good for the hobby.

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Seller Wishingtree07 has popped up on eBay with many brand new fakes of Scout patches, mostly OA. Here’s a PDF of his offerings.

New ‘Faker’ out of Malaysia on eBay

His descriptions do mention that they are brand new patches and have a heat seal back. Frankly, not sure how he chose the designs to make. For some, the original issue is cheaper than what he’s charging for the fake. You make your own decision as to whether to buy or not, although if you don’t buy then there will be fewer offered in the future.

Update 4/22/08 – More to this story – now seeing these items under a new seller id: YCPATCH as well. I went back and Wishingtree07 is still listing but NONE of their Boy Scout fakes have sold over the past two weeks. That’s a sure way to get this to end. These guys are paying less than $1 a patch. They are hoping for unsuspecting buyers. That hurts us all if they pull it off.

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An eBay seller out of Malaysia has surface with some red and white and khaki and red strips that are modern, over-seas manufacture. Here’s one:

That he titled “IMPERIAL YUMA COUNCIL STRIP RARE”. Its a buyer beware world on eBay. I still liken it to the wild, wild west. Ebay has limited ability to police this so know your seller!!!!

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Every time this pops up on eBay we get asked if this is an OA pin. No. This is not an OA pin. It is not a Vigil pin. It is a YMCA pin. And, they are extremely common (and this picture, from a current listing, is upside down as to how the pin was worn.)

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As Jeff Cook reports in the patchblanket.com blog – there is a whole store for fake patches out of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

There’s really no rhyme nor reason to what this faker has chosen. Some of the real patches sell for less than what he’s asking for his fakes. Go figure. Still, they’re now in the collecting stream. We’re working on a way to fix this for the high end collectibles in our hobby.

The fakes are dominated by OA but not solely as he’s got some fake CSPs (again not sure why he chose to pick the ones he did.) One way to control this is to not buy but his profits are so large that he does not need many to sell to make a profit.

Thanks to Jeff and Jason from the patchblanket.com

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For the past week or two I am receiving e-mails that I am sure is a phishing scam that I want to worn you about. A phishing scam is an e-mail that pretends to be something else that through some means tries to get you to reveal certain personal information that can lead to an identity theft. eBay continues to have problems with this. So does PayPal as well as most major banks.

This new approach is different though. The e-mails look like you have signed up for some web-site and it is asking you to confirm your free membership. Here’s one example I just received (with details blanked out so you can’t go to a bogus site.) My recommendation is DO NOT register with these sites. Unless it is a site you asked to register with, we have registration to receive information for example, do not register.

From: Funny-Files

To:

Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 8:29 PM

Subject: Secure Registration

New Member,

Welcome To Funny-Files.

Member Number: 34913845398214
Temorary Login: userabcd
Your Password ID: wxyz

This Login Info will expire in 24 hours. Please Change it.

Click on the secure link or paste it to your browser: Funny-Files (this is a hidden web-link in the original e-mail.)

Thank You,
Confirmation Dept.
Funny-Files

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Just in from Regional Blue Book Editor Dave Pede. We’ll try to get some pictures of the patches. Just another problem we’re having in our hobby.

From Dave:

L’rs, It has come to my attention that there is a new round of fakes coming out into the collecting world sourcing from Midwest Swiss Embroidery in Chicago. These are being pushed as overruns. Many of these starting to pop up, too many to be legit. They appear to be being reordered off of the original loom tapes. I am not sure who has access to them, but what I am sure is that most of the ones I have seen from Illinois lodges are NOT the correct issue to be an ‘overrun’. They are close, but not quite right. Two specific examples are a 157S9 from Leekwinai and 246 S0.5 from Pachsegink. The 157 issue was a single order placed back in the late 80′s and is a relatively scarce issue. The 246 was issued in 1994 as the Charter member flap, one per charter member. There are a few distinctions that give these away. Flat rolled border. Very thin clear plastic back. Horizontal marks in the plastic back. Color slightly wrong. I have seen others from different lodges that could be in question, 389, 567 OBV set, etc. But I will let the other Bluebook editors make the determination of legitimacy. As for the Illinois lodges I will be marking these as Z’s.

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As Destry just pointed out – this is a fake of a fake. Now this is getting ridiculous. This showed up on eBay (where else – its the venue of choice for fakes.)

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Heard from Mitch Reis today. Thought it worth saving for posterity. Mitch has done some very nice books on Scouting insignia so he knows his stuff.

Hi Roy

I just stumbled on your web log and loved reading through it.

I see you have pictures of a Fake Tenderfoot Achievement Patch.

Can I add the picture to the fake insignia section on my website?

Mitch Reis’ web site on BSA Fakes click here

I have a zero tolerance for fakes and want to spread the word wherever I can.

Mitch

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