Fake gemstone jewellery warning
Ebay jewelry buyers are advised to watch out for a disturbing and dishonest practice by some sellers - failing to state in their listing that the stones in their jewelry are not genuine.
A number of sellers on Ebay list cz, crystal and simulated gemstone jewellery in categories for natural gemstones. They either fail to include a description of the stones or fail to state whether the stones are genuine or not. Hints that the stones are crystal or glass may be found by reading between the lines, but the trap for the buyer is set.
Examples
For example: “This beautiful bracelet is set on plated platinum with 10 x Brilliant shaped Amethyst … and 40 x white crystals …, total 45.8ct.“.
This gives the impression that “amethyst” refers to genuine amethyst stones. However, elsewhere in the description we may find: “This jewelry is lab created in Europe and considered as best quality in the world.”
Bingo - “amethyst” is just amethyst-coloured “lab created” crystal/cz. Sometimes the hints are hard to find among the fluff and unnecessary praises of the jewelry. Sometimes the seller will avoid putting in any information about the stones, leaving the buyer to assume that the stones are genuine because they are listed in natural stones category.
Tips to avoid getting caught out:
1. If the seller does not state the gemstones are genuine or natural - assume that they are fake. Any seller with genuine gemstones would be keen to boast about that fact.
2. If the listing does not describe the jewellery well, but is full of fluff about how well polished, presented etc the jewellery is, or how interesting the seller’s country is - chances are the jewelry is fake
3. An item that is not made of silver or gold, but is just base metal (eg. brass) with a gold plate, is unlikely to have genuine gemstones in it.
4. Items listed at a very low price and without many bids are likely to be fakes. Remember - if it is too good to be true, it usually is not true.
5. Although many wonderful sellers are in Asia, the practice of passing off fake jewellery as the real thing is almost unique to sellers from Hong Kong and China. Extra caution is recommended. Note that feedback score is a poor indicator of reliability in this area.
6. It sometimes helps asking the seller a direct question. While a seller may be happy simply withholding information, they may stop short of outright lying.
