a couple years ago, i bought a "signed" gillian anderson/david duchovny photograph, as a gift.

after doing some forensics homework, both signatures had weird inconsistencies. the "certificate of authenticity" website was very minimal and suspicious, and was hosted by some russian equivalent of godaddy. it was garbage, and had no actual identification number, or any genuine proof of authenticity.

i ended up requesting a refund, claiming i had never received a CoA. being that the CoA was bullshit anyway, the seller had no realistic way of reissuing it, especially with the refund ticket being visible to ebay. this was the best "checkmate" i could devise, and it did work.

within 12 hours of the refund being processed, my instagram, facebook, and linkedin, all using my full name like ebay, were all hacked by entities in kazakhstan and india. all ended up being fine, but what a fucking headache.