A few months ago FakeMinerals.com broke the story that a man named Eric Blake, who was operating a website selling “Genuine Arkansas Diamonds” was importing diamonds from India for $50 per carat, then pretending to find them at the world’s only open diamond mine, getting them certified as such, then reselling them in the neighborhood of $1,000 per carat.

This report was read by over 30,000 people over the past few months and the subject of several articles and TV reports.

Here is one of the TV spots you can watch…

http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0508/518509.html

To our knowledge, the wheels of justice move very slowly and until we find out to the contrary, no charges have been filed. Of course, if something does happen, you’ll hear about it here on FakeMinerals.com

Also note, the digger featured in the video above just made worldwide headlines finding a 4.42 carat diamond on August 16th. Named the “Kimberly Diamond”, this beauty is exactly what we come to expect Diamonds from the Crater of Diamonds State Parke to look like!

What is going on here?

We have a dealer on eBay who doesn’t actually sell rocks, but all the feedback is for…POKEMON cards! Whoot!

I saw the gallery picture of this “emerald” for sale for $700.00 and thought, what a crappy picture! Well, I guess it is hard to take a picture of something that ugly. It looks like Quartz that has had green sharpie marker all over it. Well, even if it is Emerald, it is the lowest quality I’ve ever seen. Ick.

Not only that, but they use Kevin Ward’s website in his decription!

And here is a reply from the eBayer when I wrote to him…

Dear Valued Possible eBayer,

We apologize for the inconvenience viewing our auction must have caused you! Simply use your mouse to navigate to the appropriate eBay Store by utilizing your brain as an important bodily organ. If you were looking for some sort of rebate or Christmas Special you will have to try harder than that as in reference to a higher I.Q. level. Try standing on your head and see if any money falls out of your pockets. If you trousers don’t currently come equipped with pockets simply use your index finger to navigate the Yellow Pages to find your local taylor who may install some pockets for you in order for you to not only properly navigate the web but to enable your web browser. We thankyou for your continued support and acknowledge that highly valued customers such as yourself cannot go unnoticed as an unfortunate by-product of the economy. Thankyou Again and may you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and all yours and to them and all their’s and heirs. Hopefully, your cousins don’t have any relatives or you yourself that have any non-patriotic affiliations as this would only be self-destructive. Good Luck and Thankyou Again for your most useful feedback and intelligent reasoning as we value customers such as yourself very much. We will include a 25% discount if you should choose to actually make a first purchase and you may benefit greatly with the already included free shipping (but remember we do not ship to any areas known to be affiliated with any terrorist organizations). Thankyou Again!

007

Kids, this is what happens when you take TOO much acid! Know when to say when!

One of my favorite websites for gemstone scams is Colored-Stone.com! There are always people coming up with new ways to dye, irradiate, heat and otherwise screw with the color of a natural gem.

Well, this material, “Andesine Labradorite” has been on the market for awhile, mimicing the most sought after colors and effects shown in top quality Oregon sunstone. Long story short…injected with dye. Whoot!

You should go to this website and read the whole story. It is quite amazing!

http://www.colored-stone.com/stories/may08/sunstone.cfm

Strange things going on with this eBayer…

There is certainly nothing wrong with selling dyed agates, painted zeolites, glued on pyrites, curtain rod aquamarines or anything else of this nature, as long as the buyer is made fully aware that these artful items are manufactured, as opposed to naturally grown out of the ground like that. I’ve seen my fair share of Okenites, so when I saw the dyed ones it didn’t even offend me that much because they did look pretty!

The problem begins when a dealer decides to play the silent salesman part and not mention that the color you are seeing is a result of a dye job.

Take for instance this auction, for a dyed blue agate sphere. The agate is obviously a dyed brazilian agate, however no mention of the dye job is mentioned. This dealer certainly is not the only person to do this, it is a widespread practice. What can you do? I can’t tell this person to start informing his customers. I’ve asked in the past and been denied. It’s a losing situation trying to combat it. The best solution is to make sure the public is educated.

I get e-mails from people all the time thanking me for turning them onto all the fakes for sale, but it is always too late…after they were had. If only they could see this and the fake minerals section on The-Vug.com!

Now, the odd thing. Click the picture of the agate above and check out this dealers spheres. A whole bunch of them are…dripping! What the heck? Dunking them in some water before taking the photos. That way they look even brighter and more colorful! People do this with unpolished lapidary material, but I’ve never seen someone photograph wet polished items!!

Over the last few years we have seen more than a handful of scammers copying business names of fine upstanding dealers.

We have had eBay scammers take mineral dealers names and act as if they were them online, we have had websites copied and reposted with the only change being a new banner!

Even we have had problems with a certain gentleman who thought our old business name was a bit like his, but he was the only one who thought that.

So, it wasn’t much of a surprise to see someone trying to copy the legendary eBay dealer, MineralMan999.

You see, MineralMan999 is one of the top eBay mineral dealers and for good reason. MineralMan999 is Jasun MacAvoy, from New Jersey. With an eye for the unique and impressive, Jasun can be found at mineral shows across America, buying and selling to provide eBay with some of the most interesting minerals online. In addition, MacAvoy lists minerals each and every week, always starting at .99! You can just see from the stellar feedback he has received over the years, people really like what he is serving up!

So, when someone comes along and changes their user ID on eBay to mimic a long standing well known dealer’s name, it is no surprise that it is not a matter of coincidence!

While this person’s name shouldn’t even be mentioned, there is a dealer who has changed his name to mineral-man99

The only reason you should visit this dealer is to block them from your purchasing list. Just a few weeks ago this dealer changed his name to MinDat, copying the very popular website Put this guy on your ban list!

First off I want to thank each and everyone who has sent in alerts to FakeMinerals.com! We love getting your feedback and article ideas!

During Tucson of 2008 a mineral dealer recieved these specimens from a Chinese dealer. Just as soon as they were unwrapped they were wrapped back up to be returned! Obviously these matrix Copper specimens are quite fake. These natural specimens have these copper splashes on them as an afterthought.

I have scanned eBay and the internet and I have not seen any more examples of these for sale, but as always, be aware that manufacturing specimens is a never ending endevor for some!

I was alerted to this fraud by a reader of FakeMinerals.com. Thanks John!

Written By Justin Zzyzx and Brandy Naugle for FakeMinerals.com

Investigative Reporting by Hal Guyot

Arkansas is known for something very unique.

The ONLY public access diamond mine in the entire world. For a small fee, anyone can go to the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro Arkansas and search for diamonds in the giant open dirt field.

While it is certainly no easy task to unearth a diamond here, amazing finds have been reported and tracked through time. The average diamond found at the “Crater” is far less than a carat, most weighing in at under 10 points (that’s 1/10th of a carat) (TINY!). Finding a nice big fat stone over a carat is something people work for years and don’t find!

Diamonds at the Crater come in several shades, 70% of them being white, with brown coming in second and yellow is a close third.

The state park registers all of the diamonds that people find at the park, if they are willing to register it. Some don’t because they want to keep it private, while many want the nifty card that you get when you register your diamond with the park. They even keep track of everyone’s finds on their website, www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com.

Diamonds from Arkansas are also special because of a very important fact. They are worth some SERIOUS dollars! They are so special and unique, plus they tend to be among the hardest diamonds known to man. They have a unique form and often look like sleek drops of glass, rather than crude cubes and rough diamonds of so many African locations. So, an Arkansas diamond is going to be one of the most expensive diamonds you can get, but rightfully so!

Now that you know all about the important facts about diamonds from the “Crater of Diamonds State Park”, learn about how someone almost came up with a perfect scam. Almost.

You certainly couldn’t take any diamond into the park and plant it on the ground. Or at least no one thought you could. A diamond from Africa, Brazil, Russia, et al. would not produce diamonds that look like the ones from Arkansas. But someone found a source that could pass for Arkansas diamonds. A source in India that imports diamonds from the Panna Mines.

Photos of diamond lots sent to Eric to examine prior to purchase.

India produces hundreds of thousands more diamonds than the US, therefore, the diamonds from India are much cheaper than their American counterparts. A man named Eric Blake (www.arkansasdiamondjewelry.com) figured out he could make some money by purchasing diamonds from India then take them into the park and “find” them. A brown diamond from India costs around $100 per carat, while a similar diamond from Arkansas costs $1000 -$2000 per carat. A profit of more than 1000%.

In late October of 2007, Eric Blake and his family took a trip to the “Crater” and found an amazing amount of LARGE BROWN DIAMONDS!

It was no coincidence that he also placed a rush order for an assortment of Indian diamonds to be delivered no later than October 18th.

On 10/6/07 Eric sent the following message from his girlfriend (and accomplice) Susan Gabrielson’s email account.

Hello (Name Withheld),I may have deleted your last mail by accident. As I have not gotten a response from you. We are eagerly awaiting your mail. The stones must be received no later than October 18, 2007. Anything you can do to expedite this shipment would be greatly appreciated.

Over the span of 5 days, Eric and his three assistants “found” over 16.5 carats of diamonds at the park, including a whopping 3.92 carat stone! What great luck, eh? Out of all of the recorded finds they had that week, 60% of them were brown! What an interesting thing, because usually only around 20% of the finds are brown in color.

Screen captures of from the park diamond find archive for Eric Blake, Susan Gabrielson, Sarah Gabrielson, & Sayde Gabrielson

Eric also owns a website called ArkansasDiamondJewelry.com which sells diamonds and jewelry, reported to come from the “Crater” complete with certificate of authenticity issued by the Arkansas State Park. However, some of the diamonds on the site are proven to be Indian in origin. FakeMinerals.com received paperwork which shows Eric Blake importing diamonds from India in early October.

Kimberly Certificate

UPS Tracking code, screen captured from UPS.com

If that isn’t damning enough, photos taken by the salesperson in India which clearly match up with diamonds for sale on ArkansasDiamondJewelry.com

In addition, Eric sells “Arkansas Diamonds” on eBay (sayde1garcia) and has successfully sold some of his Indian diamonds to mineral dealers here in America as originating from Arkansas.

Private sources have indicated that they have been onto Mr. Blake for a few months now, but they have lacked the evidence to be sure that he was “salting” the diamond field.

One regular digger at the “Crater” met Mr. Blake in 2006 when he first tried out his scam. At that time he only registered a few diamonds. Mr. Blake offered to let the regular digger search his hole when he was done. It wasn’t much surprise that the regular didn’t find anything else in that hole. In 2007 Mr. Blake and his family were digging in an area that is known to be the dumping ground for gravel that was trucked in 1924 to put in a road. This gravel is completely free from diamonds as it is not from the diamond field, however they found a remarkable 32 diamonds! Mr. Blake then offered the hole to another family when they were leaving and while the family moved quite a bit of material, no more diamonds were forthcoming.

Mr. Blake. The diggers at the “Crater of Diamonds State Park” would like you to know that you are persona non grata.

With this information MOST, IF NOT ALL of the Diamonds sold by Mr. Blake are not from Arkansas and should be labeled as coming from the Panna Mine in India.

It is amazing that someone could think they would get away with trying to scam these finds, especially since there are dozens of people who stare, poke and prod at the numbers of the finds on the Crater’s website. 32 diamonds is an impossible number of diamonds to be found by two adults and two children during 5 days at the park.

Additionaly, As recently as January 2008, Eric has sent emails trying to “match” certain stones. And while there is nothing wrong with that in itself, in this context, it is more than a little suspicious.

I leave you with this parting thought… What is the Travel Channel’s most promoted collecting location on their “Best Places to find Cash and Treasures” series? Yep, you guessed it! Crater of Diamonds State Park! Could this be the beginning of the inevitable backlash associated with promoting this “get rich quick” mentality to mineral collecting? I guess only time will tell.

Fake Minerals and Scams are all around us. If you catch wind of something fishy, send to us here at Justin@the-vug.com

Thanks again to Hal Guyot (GeoSleuth@gmail.com) for all your hard work on this story!

Special Extra Thanks goes out to the HONEST INDIAN DEALER, Malay Hirani of Soni Tools (www.sonitools.com) for being willing to help stop fraud!

UPDATE!: Just google Eric Blake’s name on Google and you will find AP News report after AP News report about his 3.92 carat stone find in October of 2007. Not only did he scam the public, the state park, but he also scamed the media. What a guy!

UPDATE!: As soon as Eric heard about this website, he removed the photos that match up above and got rid of his “Dealer Lot” section, well, those diamonds matched up perfectly!

UPDATE!: There is a ton of additional extra evidence and it has all been turned into the authorities. We do not know if anyone will ever see that this out to justice, but you can be sure that far and wide, people know what to look out for and a scammer has been chased out!

And here is a picture found on Google of Eric Blake holding his “famous find”.

UPDATE
I’ve got a chunk of this material and guess what? It’s fluorite!

I was alerted to this fraud by a reader of FakeMinerals.com. I’m so glad too, because this is a horrible scam that needs to be squashed right away.

Let me not assume you are already an expert in Charoite. Here is the nitty gritty about REAL Charoite.
Charoite is but one mineral in the famous lapidary rough mixture from Russia. I first saw this material at the Smithsonian before I even started collecting minerals and it made a huge impression on me. The bold deep purple of the Charoite mixed with the ghostly white Quartz, deep black spots of Aegrine and the stunning bright orange Tinakite make beautiful polished items. Because of political reasons, Charoite was fairly unknown outside of Russia and even still today, only items that are finished, ie. polished, cabbed, or slabbed. Rough is tough to obtain and they have strict rules against exporting the unworked stone to China. I don’t see any problem with this, it is good for Russia to limit the manufacture of this material to people that live in the country.
This is REAL Charoite, from Russia, the only place it is found.

Charoite is one of those items that is unmistakeable, with its taletell color and form.

I SAID UNMISTAKEABLE!
So, now let us gaze upon these dealers selling this new find of AGATE/FLUORITE mix from China…

Is it these people’s fault for selling this Agate as Charoite? Well, yes, because they should know better!
Everytime someone is listed on FakeMinerals.com they get a warning letter. I give people the chance to repent and remove the offending item. The picture above is from a dealer who just simply said, No, it is Charoite. This next dealer featured got into it with me, but it is no suprise because they truly have no grasp of minerals in general and have several misleading and mislabeled items in their eBay store. Sellers and buyers beware, always take a mineral ID from Chinese lapidary factories with an extra large grain of salt. Your first view of anything like this should be with a great deal of skepticism. Well, take a look at Crystal Broker, a metaphysical dealer who has listing and IDing skills that leave much to be desired.

I’ll give them a few days to pick and select which auctions to end before I show you all of the mislabeled items in Crystal Broker’s store. =)

I think the worst thing is the fact that some dealers refuse to correct their errors and set themselves into the light. The truth will set you free. All I ask is that you kiss the papal ring and repent. Is that so much to ask? I don’t sell indulgences, but I do demand you to repent. Kiss it. Kiss the ring.

Otherwise we burn you at the stake. Heretic.

Here is a Chinese dealer who is selling these spheres wholesale…


You see, I used to work at a large wholesale mineral business and I would place the orders for the tumbled and polished material from China. Often times exotic minerals would be offered, but the items recieved were more like an artist’s interpretation of the item. These metaphysical dealers are just drinking the kool-aid that is being served up, not knowing enough about minerals to actually sniff out the truth. I guess if you are just going from the gut you are missing out on the facts. Have they been worshiping at the church of Steven Colbert? Sorry people, minerals are science. Science is based in facts. Facts come from research, not the gut.

This sphere above is listed as Bamboo agate, which is closer to what it actually is. See the cleavage lines in the purple. That is exactly what Fluorite looks like. Charoite does not have that cleavage style, eliminating it from the options this rough is. Certainly Fluorite. Certainly not Charoite.

A reader alerted me to something I had seen before in the past I thought was odd. (Thanks Tim!)

So, when I went back and checked again, I was suprised to see this still in print.

The website SunSpar.com sells faceted translucent Labradorite, otherwise known as Sunstone when it has a schiller effect to it.

The faceted Gem grade yellow Labradorite is very real, however without sparkling inclusions, it should not be called Sunstone, which it is several times on their website.

In addition, the supply of large chunks of facet grade Labradorite are not in any kind of short supply. Quite the contrary, I know one of the owners of a very large Mexican Labradorite mine and from first hand knowledge, the supply of top notch gem grade Labradorite is not running low and it has not for the last twenty years.

While the website states that the information they are giving you in their sales pitch is “In the opinon of their manager”, blatent misinformation is a lie. I contacted the company via phone call to ask them if they stood by their story after I told them the information I had, I was abruptly hung up on. Apparently they have no comment on this.

Here is a photo of their website from the WAYBACKMACHINE, circa Feb. 1998. Below that, a picture of their site from today, March 26th, 2008.

70% off! I guess that site didn’t do a super great job convincing that yellow Labradorite was some crazy rare gem, never before known to mankind.

Here is an auction for a Marcasite specimen from England, around $4.00 US.

Certainly nothing wrong with that specimen above. However, let’s take a peek at this auction, with a very similar looking specimen…

This auction has a Marcasite from the same location as the one above it, is only SLIGHTLY bigger (4mm) and is $70.00 more! I believe that it is certainly a nicer specimen but one could postulate that the much higher starting price is certainly due to the target audience it is being sold to. The cheaper one is being sold to the mineral collector market, people who collect minerals for whatever reason. The second one is marketed to the Metaphysical community, people who believe that minerals will have some kind of miraculous effect to them. If anyone tries to sell you something because it will DO something for you, shop around to make sure you are not buying something fairly common for a much higher premium.

Thanks to reader David B. for sending in that one! Feel free to e-mail me at Justin@the-vug.com to submit photos and links!