[meteorite-list] Important - Please Read

From: jason utas <jasonutas_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2011 07:45:45 -0600
Message-ID: <CAK837U0Mw3q+ABpxpEf4vV5MNif2abG9f=_La=VZGSfvU+-wJA_at_mail.gmail.com>

Hello All,
Many of you know that a man named John/Bryan Scarborough was recently
removed from the IMCA for selling meteorites that were analytically
proven to be misrepresented. If you've never heard this before,
please see the list archives:

http://www.mail-archive.com/meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com/msg98693.html

What you might not know is that I personally took responsibility for
(dis)proving the authenticity of his sales after noticing that much of
what he was selling looked "funny" -- starting back in January 2010.
Ultimately, a number of samples were sent directly from people who had
purchased them from John/Bryan to a lab for analysis, and, as the
above emails details, an "Ash Creek" turned out to be an H-chondrite,
a fragment of "Zunhua" turned out to be indistinguishable from
Tamdakht (Zunhua is an L-chondrite, not an H), and an iron that he'd
been selling as Deport turned out to be what is most likely a Campo
del Cielo.

His explanations of how these mistakes had occurred were extremely
dissatisfying; the IMCA board apparently thought as much, because the
opted to remove him from the membership.

The trouble is that someone, apparently, told him that I did much of
the investigative work. How do I know this? Jeff Kuyken, on the IMCA
board of directors, just informed me that John/Bryan has changed his
ebay username to "meteoritekid," my old internet alias.

My ebay username is *not* "meteoritekid." Please do not buy from
anyone using the name "meteoritekid" on ebay. John/Bryan is
attempting to impersonate me online in order to get back at me for
having tracked his shady dealings down.

I would not personally trust the authenticity of any specimen he sells.

I am currently taking a geology field mapping course in Montana and do
not have a working phone. When I return home in a few days, I will be
pursuing this matter with ebay. If that does not work, I will pursue
it legally. If anyone on here has experience with similar issues
within ebay, I'd like whatever help I can get.

- Do not buy from the ebay seller "meteoritekid." It is not me, and
John/Bryan has proven that he is willing to sell a wide variety of
material that is misrepresented.

Thank You,
Jason

[IMCA 6730]
Received on Wed 13 Jul 2011 09:45:45 AM PDT