Gem Stones Scams You Can't Afford Not To Know About

Always buy certified or have your gem stone checked by a qualified gemologist or appraiser before buying it.

Nowadays, any fine gemstone or jewelry purchase should be accompanied by a laboratory report.

Here are some gem stones scams you will find on the market today:

1. Simulants: refer to any material - natural or man-made - that is used to substitute a natural gem. Cubic Zirconia (CZ) is a prime example of a diamond simulant. Other man-made diamond simulants include strontium titanate, synthetic rutile, and yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG). Although the CZ has more fire, it is softer and has less brilliance than a natural diamond. Also, it does not take as fine of a polish and its brilliance will fade over time.

2. Synthetics: are laboratory-grown stones with the same crystal structure and chemical composition as their natural counterparts. Synthetic emeralds, rubies and sapphires are common in the jewelry industry, often sold as "lab-created" stones or promoted under a trade name such as "Chatham Emerald."

3. Gem stones treated with epoxy resins in order to hide fractures or inclusions in the gemstone. This treatment is also not permanent and could hide the fact of a stone being structurally defective.

4. Gem stones treated with colored oils to enhance the color, such as for emeralds. This treatment is not permanent. Note that treating gemstones with colorless oils is a traditional, generally accepted practice.

5. Assembled Stones: are commonly known as doublets or triplets. Doublets are a composite stone comprised a real gemstone top bonded to a colored glass bottom. An example is a stone with a sapphire crown glued to a glass pavilion. Triplets, where a colored bonding agent is placed between the top and bottom of colorless pieces. Or an opal set between a clear quartz crown and cheaper opal base, for example.

6. Colored foil: In order to intensify the color of a pale or poor-quality gemstone, some jewelers use colored foil on the back of a closed-back jewelry piece to intensify the color of a pale or poor-quality gemstone. Near-colorless stones are also used in this practice.

Bob Charlanza, Reading Eagle/Times:

In Bangkok several years ago, a Soviet gem firm got out of the business and sold its remaining stock of laboratory-grown synthetic emeralds to a firm which previously dealt only in natural stones. No one's quite sure whether it was intentional or not, but it took the international gem industry two years to unravel the mess. About the same time, a man approached an appraiser in Seattle for an evaluation of a good-looking emerald ring. If it were a natural, it would be worth about $20,000. He was hopeful. The gemologist said he couldn't tell 100 percent, but the gem looked like a very good synthetic. The hopeful customer went all the way. He ordered a lab test to be done. Several days later, he paid an appraiser's bill of about $120, inflated by the $60 lab fee, to find out that his good looking synthetic emerald ring was worth $300.