[meteorite-list] Ebay Fraud - steelhorse1994

From: Maria Haas <dragonsoup_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 6 May 2012 18:14:48 -0700
Message-ID: <BLU168-W7505A9162A0FAD87AF83E4CD130_at_phx.gbl>

Dear Fellow Members of the Meteorite Community,

I have bad news about some material introduced to the market through an eBay seller named steelhorse1994.

An enthusiastic IMCA applicant named Daniel Noyes bought some supposed NWA 4925 from eBay seller steelhorse1994. The material is packaged a lot like Chladni's Mars and Moon boxes (except they are square instead of rectangular) and I am sure that is by design. The red flag for the applicant was the reverse side of the box where it said, "American Meteorite Collector's Society Authenticity Guaranteed". Of course, there is no such association. Steelhorse1994 is also selling what he is calling NWA 4881 and NWA 4734 in the same packaging.

The reverse side of the box is not being shown in the auctions so you'll have to study the picture to identify these boxes. A webpage is being prepared to show all three boxes from the front and an example of the reverse side. For now, this page has a picture of the front and back of the NWA 4925 box. When the other page is ready, I'll post that as well.

You can see what the boxes look like here: http://www.impactika.com/steelhorse1994.jpg

Now the really bad news... Daniel sent the material to Dr. Randy Koretov for examination and his preliminary analysis reads as follows:

?? Dear Mr. Noyes:

?? I have preliminary compositional data for your alleged martian. I
?? can say on the basis of that data the rock is definitely NOT any kind
?? of meteorite. It's a terrestrial rock.

?? I'll send you the final data in about 3 weeks.

?? Randy Korotev

I had been in contact with steelhorse1994 before I knew about the analysis. His name is Max and he told me he purchased the material in a bulk lot a few months ago and cannot remember who he purchased it from. I don't know if he is the perpetrator or not. I have emailed with him a few times and he seemed honest but the fact remains he is still selling FAKE material. No analysis of NWA 4881 and NWA 4734 have been done but their authenticity is also guaranteed by the "American Meteorite Collectors Society" and may also be FAKE. Please beware. I count 193 of these boxes having been sold just since the middle of February. Several of us have already contacted eBay to have the remaining auctions pulled. I have followed every lead I could find to trace these boxes back to whomever put them together and I got nowhere. If you know anything about where they came from, I would welcome the information.

I would like to be clear that these boxes, sold by DANOVANNI, at http://www.ebay.com/itm/AUTHENTICATED-MOON-MARS-METEORITES-2-Premium-Rock-Art-Displays-w-Easels-/130690281958 ARE authentic and are NOT part of the fraud.

If any of you have already purchased any of this bogus and potentially bogus material, the IMCA would like one of the NWA 4881 and NWA 4734 boxes from this seller for analysis. Please contact me about that and any questions or concerns.

Please keep an eye out for this fake material and lets put our heads together to get them out of the meteorite market.

A big thank you to Daniel Noyes!

Best wishes,
Maria Haas
Treasurer
I.M.C.A., Inc.
www.IMCA.cc
Member #5520
                                               
Received on Sun 06 May 2012 09:14:48 PM PDT