The publisher forged Bob Dylan’s signature and sold “autographed” books for $600 each | Famous People

The publisher included Certificates of Authenticity in the limited edition book, which cost $599 (about the same amount in Euros). Buyers of the nearly 900 books get their money back and can keep their copies.

After the books came out last week, investigators quickly discovered that something was wrong with Dylan’s signature. What passed for his signature were actually variants of Dylan’s signature, recreated with an automatic signature machine, or opening mechanism, writes American Variety.

Buyers of the book had just received a letter from Jonathan Karp, CEO of Simon & Schuster, that read in part: “You have something very special on your hands, one of only 900 copies available in the United States. This letter is confirmation that your copy of the book is In Your Hand autographed by Bob Dylan”.

Soon, a few copies appeared on the auction site Ebay, where the “autographed” book had to fetch up to $6,000. Since the scam was exposed, most copies have been taken offline. Some are still trying to earn more than $700 from the book’s special edition.