Shopping for diamonds online can be scary. Any time you shop online you are taking a chance of being scammed. You must be prepared and do a lot of research. Diamonds are not cheap and when dealing with large sums of money you have to be very careful who you deal with and the merchandise you are buying.

There are many stores these days that sell diamonds, from Tiffany's to Wal-mart, so you can buy a diamond almost anywhere. But there are times when it is not possible. Either you live in a remote location or want a better quality for your money. These are reasons to look online. The first thing you want to do is to research the type of diamond you want.

There are some questions you have to ask yourself to determine the right diamond for you. They are about the cut, clarity, color, carat, and price. There is square cut, pear cut, or the traditional princess cut, then you want to determine the right size. How you are going to use it may determine the answer. If you are going to put it in a ring, a round cut is very nice, but on a pendant, a square cut would look good.

Next you want to examine clarity, which means the amount of flaws that are visible. There can be a little bit of cloudiness or small bits of discoloration. Color is the natural color of the diamond that you can see, most diamonds are clear, blue, red, or green. The clear ones are the most valuable, but when they are in a set with other stones, having one with color can make it look even better. The next important consideration is the carat or weight of the diamond. Carat weight is used because diamonds are so small and light there isn't a better way to measure them.

After you have answered all these questions, you can start looking for your diamond. When browsing the web pages it is important to look for websites that have been approved by nationally recognized agencies, like the Gemologist Institute of America. This is a nonprofit agency that is committed to maintaining the standard of grading in the diamonds industry. You may also want to look at testimonials by previous customers or even contact them yourself to find out if it is a reputable company.

After you have done your shopping and are ready to buy, it would be a good idea to look into a company to act as a mediator. There are third party companies that will take the diamond and inspect it for you, then give you an unbiased report on their findings. If this is good then you can send them your money and they will send your money to the seller and then the diamond to you. This protects both parties from being scammed.