[jshepherd]

Apart from the obvious reasons of spamming the forum with their pearl-powder products like soaps and other things, there is another reason why I would never trust Aloha Pearls.

When they started their business in Hawaii just a few years ago, the founder called me to order pearls and had all sorts of questions. Kept me on the phone for more than an hour - just friendly conversation, supposedly.

One month later (October, 2004) Aloha Pearls was born at AlohaPearls.com. Every picture on alohapearls.com was stolen from Pearl Paradise. The product photos, the grading photos, the pearl information, even the text was copied word for word, and they made a point of stating that you should NOT buy pearls from skyscraper land (Los Angeles) you should buy them from Aloha Pearls - closer to the source.

Actually they were amateurs buying cheap stuff from the Hongqiao pearl market in Beijing and selling it with our pictures. Needless to say, I do not really like those guys. They finally removed our photos and information after we filed DMCA complaints and prepared to sue them.

Aloha Pearls is not an honest operation.