Fake Crystals a Growing Problem
The Rise of Fake Crystals, Particularly Online
I have to admit I've become slightly obsessed with companies that sell fake crystals online. The amount of fake material being sold to unsuspecting buyers is growing at an alarming rate.
It's not only consumers who are being scammed but also small business owners.
As the practice of using crystals for healing has grown, hundreds of new businesses have appeared, many selling through online marketplaces and social media. Unfortunately, many of these sellers have limited scientific knowledge of rocks and minerals.
Although scientific knowledge isn’t a prerequisite for running a crystal business, the lack of it contributes to the growing amount of fake material in the supply chain.
Many of these sellers buy directly from India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and China. China's technology is now so advanced that even those with considerable experience can struggle to determine whether a rock or mineral is real or fake.
Although the colour of some material from India and Pakistan has been enhanced, most of the world's fake crystals, and certainly the most convincing ones, come from China.
Labradorite, moldavite, quartz, larimar, lapis lazuli, sunstone, malachite and ocean jasper are some of the most common fakes.
In the crystal healing community, anything that exhibits 'rainbows' or exceptional colour sells.
Green glass is often sold as moldavite. The tiny bubbles in polished moldavite that once distinguished real stones from fakes can now be produced artificially.
Some rocks and minerals are dyed to mimic others or to make them look a higher grade. Fine, translucent coatings are used to enhance schiller in labradorite, and some and some highly iridescent labradorite stones are resin or clay.
Hemimorphite is sold as 'Chinese larimar', and fake malachite can be produced from resin or plastic.
Fluorite is often heated, which causes its colours to fade but can make them appear brighter, possibly due to increased translucency. This treated fluorite is sold as Candy Fluorite or Watermelon Fluorite.
The Candy Fluorite in this photograph is being sold in an online marketplace. The seller describes it as "high-quality natural fluorite from Brazil." This material is all produced in China.
I've seen many crystal balls like this one being sold on social media. Although the 'iridescence' looks impressive, it's not natural.
This wholesaler advertises regularly on Instagram. Since speaking with them, many more crystal balls like this have appeared in their posts.
Having seen a UK business selling a crystal ball just like this, I asked where it was from and explained why I was asking. They said it was from Brazil.
A few days later, all crystal balls disappeared from their website and Instagram page.
I have seen some spectacular crystal balls being sold by businesses in Brazil. They're high-grade, and many are beautifully iridescent. However, none exhibit the kind of iridescence in material from China.
The iridescence is produced artificially through a process called vapour deposition A fine layer of titanium or titanium oxide is added to the crystal ball, which creates an exaggerated iridescent effect.
Another important point to consider when buying a crystal ball is that many are glass or lead crystal. Lead crystal is not quartz, it's glass infused with lead, which makes it more sparkly.
I recently saw an impressive blue lace agate sphere on Instagram. This stone can only be found in Namibia, Zambia and Malawi.
Blue lace agate from the Ysterputs mine in southern Namibia is considered the finest in the world. The mine has been closed for many years, so stone from this location is rare and highly sought after.
The colour of the blue lace agate sphere being sold by a business in China looked too good to be true. However, it could be genuine because a significant amount of high-grade material from Namibia is known to have been sold to China. However, the problem is the only way of knowing would be to have it tested.
I’ve seen spheres identical to this one being sold on Instagram. They always appear in adverts, and each time the ad appears, the name of the business changes, but the accompanying text is always exactly the same.
Giving in to temptation, I asked one seller where the blue lace agate was from. 
Having said in my reply that blue lace agate isn't found in Brazil, my subsequent messages were ignored.
When I next saw the same advert with the name of yet another business, I asked the same question. The seller initially told me it was from Brazil or Africa. When I said I needed to know for certain, they said the raw material was purchased from Namibia, but the spheres were cut and polished in their factory in China.
This sphere is much bluer than a high-grade polished stone from Namibia that I have in my collection. That may be down to lighting or the camera, but I have good experience with how things work in China.
Here's another message that I sent after seeing a clip of several 'celestite spheres.' When cut and polished, celestite and blue calcite can look very similar. However, celestite is a different mineral, and it's also more expensive. 
After seeing this post, I asked the seller if they had these towers in smoky quartz and was told they were currently out of stock. I'm fairly certain this is smoky quartz, and positive it's not fluorite.
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Minerals being labelled or described incorrectly is another growing problem. This listing, on a well-known online marketplace, features a sphere being sold by a seller in the UK.
Made-up names are also common. Rainbow amethyst, titanium quartz, and aura quartz (both treated with a coating of titanium and other metal oxides), sugar chalcedony (probably because of the layer of minute crystals), lavender fluorite, and aqua rose are just a few examples.Cherry quartz is a man-made material that, I believe, is constructed from cinnabar and quartz. Cinnabar is an ore of mercury so is highly toxic. Most of the cherry quartz is coloured glass.
(*)When visiting a crystal website, I always look for a trading address. I initially look at the contact or returns page, and if it's not there, I look through their Terms and Conditions. Once you start looking, you'll be surprised how few businesses share where they are. In many cases, you won't even find a telephone number.
Without an address, it's difficult to establish where in the world a business is.
Most UK-based businesses have a .co.uk domain, but some have .com or .org. Businesses in China and India who want you to believe they're in the UK or USA don't always make this information easy to find.
Some businesses that trade in online marketplaces claim to be in the UK and may publish an address, but it's not where they are or where merchandise is dispatched from.
This business contacted me on Instagram. When I asked where they were, they said they were in Pakistan. After searching for them online, I found they had two shops on Etsy. Looking at their post-sale feedback, the main complaint was about how long it took for goods to arrive.
There was nothing on either account to indicate they were actually in Pakistan.
A business that I followed for a while on social media publishes interesting videos related to geology. Many of their followers are serious rock and mineral collectors. Nothing about their page indicates they mass-produce low-grade crystals in China. Their profile contains a link to their Etsy shop. Their banner says they're in England. However, it didn't take long to discover they're actually in China.
Their merchandise could not be any more different to what they feature in their social media posts. Although they have over a thousand positive reviews, most of their customers seem to struggle with basic English.
You may be surprised to learn that many reviews published online are fake. Selling fake reviews, likes, and followers is big business.
Another company that claims to be in the UK are selling these love hearts on social media. They're not citrine and are not even heated amethyst. I think they're glass.When shopping online for crystals, take time to research the stone you're interested in and try to learn a little about the business selling it. Checking customer reviews on Google or Trustpilot is a good idea, but don’t just read the positive ones.
A negative review will often tell you more about the quality of a product and how a business handles complaints. Positive reviews can be bought, but no one buys a negative one!
A genuine business should always respond to negative feedback or at the very least, acknowledge it.
Bear in mind that anyone, anywhere in the world, can sell through a website or online marketplace. If something looks too good to be true, it probably is.
