Before you decide to spend your hard earned money on a diamond, It is important that you are aware of some of the scams that surround the diamond industry. Learning how to avoid diamond scams will possibly save you a lot of money and headaches.
It is usually very easy to scam people who want to buy diamonds. The diamond dealers know that not many people know too much about diamonds. We usually only buy diamonds a couple times during our whole life-time, and the diamond dealers also know that if they can make a diamond look beautiful and present it with the right sales pitch, they could get just about any amount of money from customers!
One of the most common scams used in the diamond industry is called the Carat Total Weight Scam. The jeweler places a tag on the piece that only shows the total carat weight of all of the diamonds in the jewelry. The tag should instead show the separate weights for each diamond! This scam leads the customer to believe that the diamond is actually bigger than what it actually is. Whenever you are shopping fro a diamond, be sure to ask what the total carat weight of the diamond in the center is. Another thing to watch out for is when fractions are used to measure the weight. The dealers are allowed to round up on weight, so just because it says ½ carat, it could in fact be less than that.
Always make sure that you buy diamonds that come with a certification from a third party lab.