Posted on 03/15/2003 2:33:28 PM PST by Jimmyclyde
Fake diamond scam puts jeweler under pressure
by Kay Lazar Saturday, March 15, 2003
Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but not when they turn out to be fake.
That's the allegation in Marlboro, where Kenneth's Fine Jewelry is accused of switching diamonds for cubic zirconia stones when women brought in their engagement rings to be cleaned or repaired.
``I was just shocked,'' said Laura Wagner, who found out in late January that the $4,200 diamond solitaire that she brought to Kenneth's in 1996 to be resized was switched.
Wagner said the ring never left her finger before Kenneth's worked on it. She said another local jeweler alerted her that it was a fake recently when she brought it in for repairs.
Wagner said that when she marched over to the Marlboro Police Department to file a complaint, detectives there said they were well aware of the problem.
``It has been referred to the Attorney General's Office, and we are working together with them,'' Marlboro police Chief Mark Leonard said yesterday, adding his office has 14 reports of fraud or larceny involving the jewelry store since 1996, all involving allegedly switched diamonds.
A spokeswoman for Kenneth's yesterday said they tracked the problem to an outside vendor who performed repairs for the shop in 1996, and that the store stopped using that vendor three months later when problems began to surface.
But other customers don't buy that story. Traci Kelleher said the 14-stone diamond ring her fiance bought from Kenneth's in 1992 turned out to be fake - even though owner Kenneth Powers himself verified it as legit, not realizing that an undercover police officer was watching the conversation in July 1993.
Kelleher said when her fiance returned to the shop with the officer and confronted Powers, he agreed to exchange the ring for a real diamond. She said the couple, a week away from their wedding, did not press charges.
Leonard yesterday confirmed that case but said he was unable to provide details.
And she didn't even notice for 7 years. I will never understand why people throw away their money on something DeBeers tells us that we just must have.
And your sweetie bought his line? LOL
Meant she got a bigger rock. And even beyond that, I think she liked the way I celebrated my imperfect-but-one-of-a-kind Sweetie.
If I find myself another fiancée, I'd be inclined to do the same thing. Better watch out, though, since if the philosophy gets too wide spread it may push up the prices on H/I1 and H/I2 diamonds [which seem to me to represent an excellent value as diamonds go].
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