Although Ebay is one of the largest marketplaces in the world it is not noted for its ability of detecting counterfeit items and fraudsters.

I will show you some examples of freshwater low-quality pearls sold as South Sea Pearls and how to spot them:

 

This necklace is sold as : “Huge AAA+ 12-13mm real natural South Sea White Baroque Pearl necklace 18” “

 

When we saw a listing like this we must be aware of a couple of things:

1°Price: South Sea Pearls aren’t abundant, and a necklace of this size will never go for less than a thousand dollars. 

2°Country of origin: Although many serious Pearl businesses are established in China and Hong Kong SAR, it is noticeable than many of these fraudsters in Ebay are selling from China.

3° Shape: Although these pearls are baroque,their shape is too uniform in order to be South Sea Pearls. 

 

This necklace is made with potato shape freshwater pearls and treated to have that metallic luster. Freshwater pearls are beautiful and many combinations can be done with them, but they shouldn’t be sold as genuine South Sea Pearls.

And there are thousands of listing like this on Ebay, so you must only buy from known and respectable sellers.

 

If anything is too good to be true, probably isn’t.