Fake online sellers will promise the world, offer a money back guarantee, ship later than promised (or not at all), provide crappy products (or no product at all), then ignore your customer service requests-- and still make lots of money. Here's how to avoid becoming the next ripped-off victim of an online product scam’s lying, cheating and stealing-- in general and with some specific tips on avoiding a jewelry rip off. If you’ve ever bought something off a single social media ad, and the product never arrived-- and then tried to track down who did what when and how the jerks got away with your money…you may already know the general answer. But today’s tips will drive the lesson home to being a smarter online shopper.

A little while ago I learned a new word: “affordibauble”. Alright, alright, you got me.  It’s not a real word, so to speak.Here at the shop, we made it up. But this made up word IS "A Word That Saves You Money".

Frankly, the U.S. higher education system might be the biggest scam running. And the way Big Pharma continues profiting off of drugs for those dying in late stage cancer misery-- and buying up and closing down any companies doing research on early cancer detection measures-- may be the most evil thing we’ve seen in the world of business. In our opinion...not far behind on the scammy and evil list, however, is the diamond engagement ring.Beyond the many, MANY lies the diamond industry has told for decades-- these solitaire swindlers have commercialized the emotion of love and somehow managed to transform a personal and thoughtful gift into a status symbol that has come to be measured-- and judged-- by the size (and the price tag). Yeah, we know that sounds more than a little  ‘tin-foil-hat’ crazy to some people.   But if you’re not already a definite ‘Diamond Doubter’, we're not asking a person to believe anything just yet-- until he or she can see the evidence for themselves. All we ask is that you refrain from disbelieving while we show you our proof that 'the more he spends, the more he loves her' is absolute bullshit.

Today we’re sharing a brief roundup of some of the more common scams, deceptions, manipulations and money-grabbing tactics used by unethical jewelers that give our industry a bad rap. We wanna arm you with the knowledge that each of these common scams and unethical business practices exist...because, once you see it, you can’t UNSEE IT. In some cases, police and governments have gotten involved. But in most cases, it’s up to ethical jewelry companies to call out the bad actors in our industry.  We hope this 5 minute read can give you the info to spot these shenanigans, and we can rest assured that our friends and customers won’t be deceived (again).

Take a look at the Google Trends for “cubic zirconia” (what we make and sell) versus “fake diamond”, “man made diamond” and “artificial diamond”. What's more popular? Fake diamonds Artificial diamonds Man made diamonds Cubic zirconiaHere's what the Google search research says...