Diamond doubles

Cheryl Miller

Friday, July 16, 1999 | 10:58 a.m.

They're supposed to be an affordable alternative to diamonds. But moissanites, the manufactured gemstones that sparkle like diamonds at only a fraction of the price, have cost some Las Vegas area pawnbrokers thousands of dollars.

Since last summer, a handful of valley pawnshops have been approached by customers trying to pawn moissanites as diamonds, according to Metro Police. Only a few stores have actually been duped, Coleen Irvine, head of Metro's pawn detail, said.

"There are a lot of people in the industry who are afraid of these things," Irvine said.

Last July, two men walked into a SuperPawn store on Spring Mountain Road and pawned some diamond jewelry and loose stones for about $8,000, according to police and store security workers. When testing equipment happened to arrive just five hours later, store employees learned that the diamonds were really moissanites.

The next day, the same two men approached a clerk at another SuperPawn store looking to hock more fake diamonds. The suspicious employee called company security and police. The men were taken into custody in what Metro Police say were the first moisannite-related arrests in the country.

Metro sent out local alerts about the men's arrest and "the phones started ringing off the hook," Detective Dan Bechtol said. In a matter of days, the men had approached at least six pawnshops in the valley with their diamond look-alikes. Two stores purchased the moissanites thinking they were diamonds.

The two men, Russian citizens, were indicted by a local grand jury, but they have failed to show up for court appearances, Bechtol said. Police are not releasing their names.

Since moissanites debuted commercially just over a year ago, pawnbrokers and jewelry dealers across the country have been swindled, paying top dollar for moissanites they believed were the genuine article.

Moissanites occur in nature as green, brown or black microscopic deposits. Chemist Henri Moissan discovered them in a meteorite in Arizona's Diablo Canyon in 1893.

In the mid-1980s, Cree Research, a Durham, N.C., company, figured out how to make moissanites for industrial use as semi-conductors, precision blades and screens for calculators and laptop computers. The azure glow in the dashboards on Volkswagen's new Beetles comes from the stones.

Researchers discovered that colorless forms of the gemstones look remarkably like diamonds. C3 Inc., the Morrisville, N.C.-based company that is the sole manufacturer and marketer of moissanites, says it wants to position the stones as gems in their own right, not diamond impostors.

The company has tried to guard against fraud by requiring dealers to make clear the stones are synthetic, limiting outlets to about 130 jewelers nationwide and requiring them to sell the stones in settings.

But that hasn't stopped the scam artists.

Since last July's arrests, pawnshops in Las Vegas and Laughlin have reported four or five attempts to hock moissanites as diamonds, police said. But most shop owners are on the lookout for moissanites.

"Everybody's pretty much on the ball now," Steven Angelo, head of security for SuperPawn, said.

Erminia Drobkin, owner of Pioneer Loan and Pawn and vice president of the Nevada Collatoral Loan Association, said her business has never been stung. People have come into her store, however, trying to pawn moissanites as diamonds.

"It's like trying to pawn phony watches," Drobkin said. "They say, 'It was given to me, I didn't know.' "

Moissanites are almost as hard as diamonds and can sparkle even more brilliantly. To the naked eye, diamonds and moissanites can be difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish.

"It will conduct heat like a diamond, which is what scared a lot of jewelers in the beginning," Lee Christensen of MJ Christensen Jewelers Inc., said.

However, both Christensen and Drobkin said a trained eye -- sometimes with the help of a magnifying loop or a special tester -- can detect the differences. Diamonds and moissanites can be cut differently, they say, and the moissanites may have a green or brown tint. There are other differences, too.

"It is not very hard to tell if you're a jeweler who's had any kind of training," said Christensen, who is talking with C3 about becoming a moissanite outlet.

Pioneer Loan and Pawn purchased a $500 tester from C3 that can identify a moissanite. Drobkin, who is also a gemologist, said her employees are trained to examine the cut, size and shape of any diamond-like stone, to look at it with a loop, to use a diamond tester on it and to use the C3 tester.

Drobkin said she also reads constantly about changes and possible scams in the gemstone business.

"In our industry, if we don't have knowledge, we shouldn't be in business," she said.

Proving that someone was trying to fraudulently sell a moissanite as a diamond can be tricky, Irvine said.

"In order for us to make the arrest, the person has to know that they're selling, so you almost have to get them twice," she said.

Drobkin and Christensen say would-be diamond buyers can best protect themselves by dealing only with someone they trust. Drobkin suggests consumers save the receipt for any jewelry sale and check a store's credentials with the Better Business Bureau or the Chamber of Commerce.

"Never buy on the street from a friend," she said. "Always buy from a jeweler or a pawn broker who's been in the business for a long time."