The diamond industry is notorious for numerous frauds and scams. Even your local jewelry stores may be in on the scam. Most scams are relatively minor and happen on a regular basis, such as tricking people into paying more than should, or passing off an inferior diamond as a first-rate gem. There are major scams that recur every once in a while that can really fleece people. These scams work because most people who buy diamonds don’t know much about diamonds. Therefore, they can be easily tricked and fooled.
A scam that you might even find going on in your friendly, trusted local jewelry store is the Carat Total Weight (CTW) scam. When a setting has multiple diamonds, it is tagged with the Carat Total Weight. This is the total weight of all the diamonds in the piece. Most pieces have a larger centerpiece stone. Many consumers assume that the weight on the tag is the weight of the large stone. Therefore, the customer assumes that the weight of the total piece is greater than it actually is. This scam can be thwarted by understanding the concept of Carat Total Weight and that pieces are routinely tagged according to CTW. In addition, you have the right to ask about the weight of the center stone.
Another thing that stores can sting you on is fractions. Weights are often expressed in quarter carets. Jewelry stores can round off weights to the quarter caret and they will round up. Therefore, many diamonds are tagged with a heavier carat weight than they actually are. This one is harder to prevent, but with this knowledge in hand, you can shame jewelry stores to give you what you pay for.
Another common jewelry store scam is what is known as the fluorescence scam. In this scam the jewelry store salesperson will tell you that a white diamond or blue-white diamond is unique and special. This sounds very good, but in fact this is a diamond of inferior quality. A shady jeweler will try to convince you that you are getting something special. This scam is notorious for being pulled on young men, with little or no knowledge of diamonds, shopping for engagement rings to give to their fiancés.
Some jewelry stores will only show you diamonds under very bright lights. Bright lights will make almost any diamond shine and look good. But good diamonds will sparkle and look good in any kind of light; inferior diamonds will not. You must insist on looking at any diamond you are thinking of purchasing in all types of lighting.
This old and rather nasty scam happens when you take a diamond in to be appraised. This is common when a diamond is received as a gift or was purchased at another store. You will be told the diamond is worthless, or at least worth far less than it actually is. The store will make you a lowball offer or let you trade it in toward the purchase of a better diamond, as long as you pay the difference. Your best protection is getting multiple opinions before taking this type of action.
A downright scary and fairly common scam is when you leave a piece of jewelry to be repaired, appraised or sized. The scam is switching the diamond for one of lesser quality and value. The only effective way to avoid this scam is to use a trustworthy jeweler that you have done business with before.
Of course there are more ways you can be scammed than what we have discussed here, but this covers the most commonplace, time tested scams. Your best defense is awareness of these scams, a working knowledge of diamonds and what you can do to protect yourself.
