Why are these Russians, Moldovans, Ukrainians etc. emailing me for my autograph

Factual Questions
1

I own an autograph-based website, because I collect them. For some reason, I keep getting e-mails from people in Russia, Moldova, Ukraine and so forth asking for my autograph. It’s been happening for a few years, but I always ignore them.

Here’s an example of one I just got:

"Hello My name is Alexander. I’m your biggest fan club. I am writing on behalf of the Fan Club in the city of Tiraspol. We have 12 people. We always love and appreciate you and we are very pleased with your work. However, we were not able to get autographs. You are for us the ideal role model and we learn from you. You - the best. I would love to have my letter was read. Thank you for what you are doing. We wish you all the best, great achievements, much health, love and happiness. If possible, please send us an autograph and souvenirs with the logo for the club, so we remember you always. Thank you.

Our address
3300, Moldova, Tiraspol, Gogolya str. 18
Socolan Alexandr "

And another:

"Hello ,

I admire yours, you are my Idol. I’d like get your photo to autograph
(preferably signed by hand), it is very important to me.
Could you along with a photo to send a small souvenir for me .
My Birthday soon ,for me to be a will great happiness to receive yours
letter with photo and a small souvenir for me !

I wish you happiness, health and success!

Yours sincerely, Anastasi Kopotkovа."

Are they trying to scam me? Are they trying to steal my identity? Do they really think I’m someone famous?

2

It;s a scam. Search on the street address: 3300, Moldova, Tiraspol, Gogolya str. 18

3

Hello, my name Peggy.

4

How would the scam work? Would they be asking for other info of yours eventually?

5

They don’t need much more once they have your signature.

6

They want to give you the million dollars left behind by a Nigerian Prince.

7

Surely they’d need the stereotypical bank-account number, etc?

8

What can they do with your signature? I have never ever once in my life had my signature verified on anything.

9

A signature by itself won’t help with identity theft. Like many other authors, I have signed thousands of books at events over the years. Big name authors frequently have copies of their signature on verification sites where people can make sure an autographed book is genuine (which amuses me, because a forger can just copy the sig from the verification site). I am unaware of an author ever having an identity theft problem from such signatures.

10

[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:9, topic:600084”]

A signature by itself won’t help with identity theft. Like many other authors, I have signed thousands of books at events over the years. Big name authors frequently have copies of their signature on verification sites where people can make sure an autographed book is genuine (which amuses me, because a forger can just copy the sig from the verification site). I am unaware of an author ever having an identity theft problem from such signatures.
[/QUOTE]

They do need more information, but they don’t need to get it from you. They have your email address, and your name, and they can likely find your address. They then will look for somebody who has already pilfered some of your personal information. From there they conduct a process by mail to gain access to your accounts. The signature is just a final touch. One thing they might be doing is to collect up a big list of signatures and sell it to someone else who does the actual theft.

This address appears on a Russian scam list. It could be any kind of scam, including for you, selling autographed versions of your books, or for the OP selling fake autographs authorized by him.

11

Just for the heck of it, I put the address into Google. Here’s Tiraspol.