Buying diamonds is difficult enough with the details of pricing and quality. Diamond education goes a long way in helping one know about the quality. However, there is one part of diamond education most of us may not know of – spotting fake diamonds. Though the diamond market is fair and such illegal practices are rare, someone can still trick you.

Diamond simulants like moissanite and quartz are not exactly fake if you know what you are buying. But if you compare them to natural diamonds, they are not the real deal. The problem of fake diamonds comes into question when you don’t know what you are getting for your money.

Spotting fake diamonds can be difficult if you are purchasing diamonds for the first time. In reality, however, it is not rocket science. 

Diamonds form deep inside the Earth under a lot of heat and pressure. Being made of carbon, their density is quite high. Take your diamond and put it in a tall glass of water. If it is genuine, it will sink to the bottom due to its density. There is no way that a piece of glass or plastic can be denser than a diamond.

This one may be a new kind of test but it is absolutely genuine. A real diamond does not conduct electricity. While you should not try this test at home, you can take it to your jeweller and find out the same. Diamond simulants may look exactly the same but this is where you can easily tell them apart.

A natural diamond disperses heat which other diamond simulants cannot. In this test, you’ll need your diamond to be squeaky clean, with no oily or dirt layer on it. Hold the stone near your mouth and blow on it; if the fog disappears immediately, you have a real diamond. If the fog stays for even five seconds, you are in possession of a fake or simulant.

These are some of the tests that you can use to find out if your stone is a fake.

However, there are a couple of tests which cannot help you. The scratch test and the fluorescence test, as they are called, are not reliable.

The scratch test involves scratching a mirror with a diamond. Since a diamond is hard enough, it is expected to cause damage to the mirror’s surface. However, any stones like quartz or cubic zirconia are perfectly capable of scratching the mirror’s surface. Therefore, this test is not foolproof.

Similarly, the fluorescence test does not work for spotting fake diamonds. This test involves checking the diamond under UV lighting for a blue tone. Fluorescence is a property found in most natural diamonds. It is a natural characteristic and may or may not affect the stone’s quality. Fake diamonds will not display any fluorescence. The reason this test is not foolproof is that even some natural diamonds are completely devoid of fluorescence.

One of the safest ways to ensure that you have a real diamond in your possession is to get a diamond certificate. A trusted diamond jeweller and an international grading laboratory will issue one to you.