Whether you’re buying that perfect gift for a special person in your life or you want to know if your own diamond is the real thing, the proliferation of imitation stones and the people who try to pass them off as real can be worrisome. While the best option is to have the diamond appraised by a jeweler you trust, who can test the diamond without damaging it, this will cost you, and it may not be convenient if you’re shopping around. Here’s how to take matters into your own hands and catch a fraud on the spot.

1. Ask for a certificate.grading authority (e.g. GIA, AGSL, LGP, PGGL) or an independent appraiser who is affiliated with a professional organization (like the American Society of Appraisers). This is especially important if you’re buying a stone you haven’t seen, such as from the Internet.

2. Look through it. Diamonds have a high “refractive index” (meaning they sharply bend the light that passes through them). Glass and quartz have a lower refractive index, meaning they sparkle less because they bend light less, even when they’ve been cut nicely (because the refractive index is an inherent physical property which is not altered in any way by a nice cut – unless, technically speaking, the cut induced a permanent strain on the crystalline lattice).

* If the diamond is not mounted, turn it upside down and place it on a piece of newspaper. If you can read the print through the stone or even see distorted black smudges, then it probably isn’t a diamond. (Unless the cut is disproportionate, in that case print can be seen through a real diamond.)

* If the stone shows any sign of double refraction, it may be Moissanite (silicon carbide), a gemstone that is so similar to a diamond that even jewelers can have a hard time telling them apart. Look at the facet junctions from the top side of the stone, the ‘star’ facets’ if you see what looks like double vision then that is the doubling effect.

* If the diamond is mounted, you should not be able to see the bottom of a diamond looking directly from the top.

* Draw a small dot with a pen on a piece of white paper. Place your unmounted diamond over the center of the dot. Look directly down on it and if your stone is not a diamond, you will see a circular reflection in the stone.

3. Observe the reflections. A real diamond’s reflections usually manifest in various shades of gray. If you see rainbow reflections, you’re either dealing with a low-quality diamond or a fake.

4. Take the bottom view: Under a microscope hold the stone table (top facet) down. If you see an orange flash only to the facets as you rock the stone it is fake.

5. Buy a combination Diamond/Moissanite Tester. These are readily available and can quickly indicate if it is a true diamond or simulant.

6. Weigh the stone. Cubic zirconia weighs approximately 55% more than diamonds for the same shape and size. Use a carat or gram scale to compare the stone in question to a real diamond.

7. Check the setting and mount. A real diamond is not likely to be set in a cheap metal. Stamps inside the setting indicating real gold or platinum (10K, 14K, 18K, 585, 750, 900, 950, PT, Plat) are a good sign, while a “C.Z.” stamp will give away that the center stone is not a real diamond.

8. Put the stone under a UV light. Many (but not all) diamonds will exhibit blue fluorescence under an ultra violet or black light, so the presence of a medium to strong blue confirms that it is real. The ”absence” of blue, however, does not mean it is fake; it could simply be a better quality diamond. If you see a very slight green, yellow, or gray fluorescence under ultraviolet light, it may be Moissanite.

9. Test it with a heat probe. Real stones disperse heat quickly and they won’t heat up with the probe. This takes about 30 seconds and is often done free of charge. It also doesn’t hurt the stone the way some other ways of testing will.

10.Use the fog test: Put the stone in front of your mouth and fog it like you would a mirror. If it stays fogged for a couple seconds, it’s probably a fake. A real diamond disperses the heat instantaneously so by the time you look at it, it has already cleared up, or if it happens to be a little dirty, it still clears much faster than a fake. Use a stone you know is real next to the suspect stone and fog both. You can watch how the real one stays clear while the fake one fogs over, plus if you breath on them repeatedly, you will see condensation start to build up on the fake, it fogs more with with each puff, while the real one is still clean and clear.

11. Have the diamond x-rayed. Real diamonds do not show up on an x-ray, glass, cubic zirconium and crystals all have slightly radiopaque quailities, diamonds are radiolucent.

12. Use a jeweler’s loupe to inspect the diamond. Mined diamonds usually have small imperfections or inclusions that can be seen this way. Cubic zirconium does not have these imperfections. For that matter, lab-grown diamonds (which should pass all of the other tests) usually don’t have imperfections either.

There are four C’s to consider when choosing a diamond: cut, color, clarity and carat. A diamond’s overall score or grade will be affected by each of the four- but may not have the same grade in all four aspects. (An ideal cut will of course have the same score “perfect” across the board, but those are extremely rare).

When looking at the right diamond, you must make careful note of each grade, as well as the overall score and decide what is acceptable for you. A round cut diamond should be the perfect grade for you, even if that means that the diamond is not actually perfect.

A diamond’s cut affects every other aspect of its appearance and grade. Once a diamond is cut and shaped it will be polished to release as much of the brilliance and sparkle from within. A diamond that has been perfectly cut may still end up with flaws from improper polishing that will affect the amount of dazzling light that escapes from its surface. Bad polishing and bad cuts can affect the diamond’s score for its clarity. The diamond’s clarity rating will be “flawless” to “imperfect”.

Diamond color is affected by the cut as well, but is more affected by its own nature. Substances found within the stone itself may affect the amount and shade of the color in the finished stone. A perfect or ideal diamond is pure and colorless. In most cases, color in diamonds is caused by impurities such as boron and nitrogen atoms that penetrate the diamond’s make up. In some cases, the cut can take into account the area of the impurity and cut around it or cut into it to take advantage of it, especially when the diamond has a unique or desirable color.

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Everyone understands that when they are looking for a diamond, they follow the Four C’s for the best round cut diamond, but what else does the average diamond shopper need to know? They may also need to know that the number of facets in the best cut diamond is standard at 58 and that diamonds with less than that may not have the right amount of brilliance and sparkle or that diamonds with more may be trying to hide a flaw of some kind.

In fact, most people do not know how nearly impossible it is to find a diamond that does not have at least a small flaw in it. The average diamond is sold with a flaw- because most diamonds are sold with ratings of fair to good, which allow for small, non-detectable flaws within the stone. In general and non-gemologist terms, a “good” diamond, one that can be defined as white, clean and sparkly will only account for less than three percent of all diamonds sold.

Consider the grade of diamond when you are purchasing round cut diamond, especially if you are making an investment in the stone itself. If you are buying purely for sentiment, then the grade or rating may  not matter quite as much to you, but if you are shopping to buy the best and want more than just a sparkly rock, look for stones that are rated as good or above for the most return on your money. Because it is so rare for a diamond to be cut and still manage to earn this designation, expect to pay more than you would for a lesser stone, but you get what you pay for and realistically a flawed stone bought today is still going to be a flawed stone in the future.

When speaking in terms of diamonds, the word “perfect” may get used far too often. When you stop to consider what it takes to find a diamond in the first place and then to cut it, shape it and polish it into the beautiful jewelry item that we all aspire for, then you will understand the improbability of finding a “perfect” round cut diamond at all. It takes far more labor than the average person realizes – first to find the gray lump of stone that will eventually become a diamond and far more labor to bring it to its full potential.

Diamonds, for all of their beauty are not mined purely for looks. The diamonds that we wear on our fingers, necks and ears account for only about of quarter of what is mined every year. Diamonds may be the darlings of the jewel world, but their main purpose lies in industrial use. The remaining 75% of all diamonds mined every year are used in industry and science in one way or another.

Before a diamond makes it to your bride’s finger, over 250 tons of earth will have been moved and the stone itself will have touched probably five continents. It is more than likely that more than one highly trained and highly skilled craftsman will have handled the stone in some way.

The bride may be dieting before the wedding, but her stone has gone through reduction of its own: a diamond with even the most skilled craftsman, making the most efficient cuts will end up with only one half of its rough weight, and in many cases less. How rare is a diamond that is weighed at more than one full carat? Only one in one thousand, cut and polished diamonds are over one carat in total weight.

When you are shopping for a major purchase on your own, you need to be either an expert or savvy enough to do a little research before heading out into the wild, wooly frontier world of the unknown. When that purchase is going to be something as important as a diamond, there are many facts that you must know. Some of these facts you may have heard before, but you may not have understood them fully. Other facts may be completely new to you.

First and foremost, pay careful attention to who you are buying your diamond from. If at any time you feel uncomfortable with what you are being shown or feel that you are being rushed in any way, do not make a purchase. This is not something you want to feel hurried into in anyway.  Look carefully at the diamonds that you are being shown, looking at the Four C’s, (cut, color, carat and clarity). A perfect or ideal cut is the diamond standard, the highest level of perfection but may be very expensive, especially if you want a larger stone. Round cut diamond or cut round diamonds are the most common of the diamond cuts and one that requires the most expert cuts.

Secondly, you must realize that some flaws are almost to be expected- especially with the larger stone sizes. With that in mind, you might consider this as well: three out of every five diamonds that are sold in the US may be weighed wrong for the benefit of the jeweler.  Off carat sizes, or diamonds that are listed at weights other ¼, ½ or one carat may be less expensive, but leaves some room for this practice.

If stone size is more important to you, then consider choosing a stone that is rated below good on the grading scale. If you prefer perfect over size however, you will likely need to start small and then upgrade as you go.

Diamonds are cut from rough stones and then polished carefully to become the beautiful gems that have been treasured by man for centuries. When they are first found, diamonds look nothing like what twinkles from our fingers, necks and earlobes. In fact, if you do not know what you are looking for, you would probably walk past a freshly mined and unpolished diamond.

When a diamond is graded, it receives scores for four categories, the Four C’s. These are cut, color, carat and clarity. Of them, cut is the most important because it so greatly affects the other aspects. To get a perfect round cut diamond for instance, the craftsmen must carefully and expertly cut away 50-60% of the rough diamond surface to release the beauty inside.

A diamond that has had shallow cuts will not have nearly the brilliance that it should because light will not reflect back to the viewer. On the other hand, diamonds with very deep cuts will also lose most of the light which is directed into them and will appear equally lifeless and dull. A diamond’s cuts must be of equal depth, and of the equal shape and size on both sides (symmetry) or the sparkle factor, known as brilliance will be affected.

Among the most common flaws that are found in most diamonds are the wrong number of facets, facets that do not line up correctly, chips, lines, breaks and missing culets (the bottom portion of the diamond). Some of these flaws are so small that they would never be noticed by the naked eye while others may be large enough to be noticed right away. Only you know what level of perfection is necessary for you- and there are so many factors to consider you may have to make some compromises.