FTC issues new warnings about engagement rings

yes I'm listening okay I don't appreciate the sarcasm but I'll do it see at the airport tomorrow so whether she's asking reluctantly or he's asking in earnest there's one thing that can make a proposal a little less awkward and that's an engagement ring according to the National Retail Federation consumers spent nearly four billion dollars on jewelry for Valentine's Day last year and if new bling is on your shopping list well listen up lab-created in diamond alternatives are rapidly rising in popularity and as Kyra Phillips reports there are a lot of new options out there and experts say some shoppers may not be buying exactly what they intended money can't buy love but it can buy ring and for Molly Carlson that was a big deal her boyfriend Scott popped the question during a vacation in 2018 but he waited to buy the ring so they could pick the perfect one together and they did at a jewelry store at their local mall it was perfect they say until I took it to another jewelry store and I said what can you tell me about my ring and they told me well I can tell you it's not a natural diamond it turns out Molly's dream diamond was actually a diamond created in a lab and the salesperson was describing the ring to you What did he say it is basically this is the style this is the cut this is the clarity but never once about this is laughs they issue the Federal Trade Commission says is disclosure jewelers must clearly tell customers that it's man-made before they buy any diamond that's not natural so now after concluding not every bling business is following its marketing and sales guidelines the FTC recently sending warning letters to eight online jewelers that sell lab-created and simulated diamonds three things that we're seeing use of the term cultured to describe a diamond use of the word alternative to describe a diamond and simply using a brand name next to the word diamond and not having additional language close by to make clear the consumer that what they're buying is not in fact a mine stone one of the sites the FTC sent a warning to is diamond Nexus here on its site there are descriptions like Nexus Diamond alternative and the company says that language is clear and customers understand they are not getting a mined diamond the site also has a page that explains how the stones are made but the FTC says that's not enough other terms we've seen are things like diamond alternative which is especially ambiguous because it could refer to anything diamond Nexus says the FTC guidelines are outdated the Nexus Diamond alternative and they stand behind their language the company telling ABC News what we offer for customers is an incredible value for those who care about beauty and budget over chemistry or creation method so how can you be sure of what you're getting gemologist Antoinette Matlin says if it's a diamond gear after asked directly if it was created in a lab and get that information in writing whether it's a laboratory diamond or a mined diamond all of that same information should be on the report it's something Molly says she wishes she had done never crossed my mind that that should be a question I would ask and Kira joins us now in DC with Martin Kira there are a lot of reasons that that people might prefer a lab-created diamond or a diamond alternative but Scott and Molly they're saying they thought they were getting a natural diamond right exactly and they were so excited about it because this was the first time molly was ever going to have a diamond I mean matter of fact the first person in her entire family to ever have a diamond so just to show you how how hard it is to see what is natural and what has lab created or what's a simulant buy just the mere naked eye look at these two pictures and tell me can you even take a guess here and figure out which one is the natural diamond and which one is the simulant so what I'm thinking initially is that the one on the left seems to cut up a little bit more so I'm gonna go out on the lemon so you think that that's the real one okay it is not when I say real the natural I'm gonna say right exactly I've learned a lot from your piece okay so have I I mean Lindsey it really comes down to very specific verbage and that's what's been so confusing for so many of the consumers so now there are ways that you can look for for other things that might trigger maybe a red flag and that's the inclusions Lindsey if you look very closely at a diamond for an inclusion that's the birthmark if you will within a mined diamond it's also called a blemish it's those small imperfections in natural diamonds and many simulated diamonds and lab-created diamonds don't have those inclusions interesting so you there are some distinctions that you can make with the naked eye that's good to know Kyra Phillips thank you for that report right in Thailand Valentine's Day there you go right you got it hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our Channel and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

Views: 1,007,865

Keywords: ftc, engagement, rings, warning, diamonds, natural, diamond, man, made, lab, created, abc, news, live, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-68976061

Id: 1EOsvUmmz20

Length: 5min 36sec (336 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 13 2020