In many countries, the US, for example, anything less than 10 karats -- or about 42 percent real gold -- is not permitted legally to be sold as gold. Still, the reality is that with gold sales rising rapidly, under-karating, or cheatting over the value of the gold, is a very common problem, even though it's not widely known.

The worst cheating occurs with the less expensive 10-karat and 14-karat pieces and the problem is very difficult to solve. The reason is that by simply looking at a piece of gold, there is really no way to tell the difference between 10-karat and 8-karat. This can be a tough issue to face when you purchase discount jewelry, because you can never be sure of the quality of the gold you buy.