COUNTERFEIT
(see also FAKE)

A Chinese boy who wanted to learn about jade went to study with a talented old teacher. This gentle man put a piece of the precious stone into his hand and told him to hold it tight. Then he began to talk of philosophy, men, women, the sun and almost everything under it. After an hour he took back the stone and sent the boy home. The procedure was repeated for several weeks. The boy became frustrated. When would he be told about the jade? He was too polite, however, to question the wisdom of his venerable teacher. Then one day, when the old man put a stone into his hands, the boy cried out instinctively, 'That's not jade!'" 

H. Robinson, Biblical Preaching.

If you're planning to vacation in Zambia, beware of the street-corner "emerald vendors." And if you're driving, be prepared for some confusion in the streets, owing to stolen traffic lights. The two warnings are related: The traffic light thieves are selling green glass chips to unsuspecting tourists who think they're getting bargain-basement emeralds. 

Reader's Digest, March, 1980.

An estimated 10,000 physicians have phony foreign medical degrees that brought one broker of fraudulent diplomas $1.5 million over three years, a congressional panel was told Friday. Claude Pepper, Democrat-Florida, said many American citizens may be receiving medical treatment from doctors who lied on their medical school loan applications, and used the money not to go to school but to pay a broker for fake documents claiming they completed school and training. Pedro DeMesones, now serving a three-year prison sentence for mail fraud and conspiracy, told the panel that in three years of "expediting" medical degrees, he provided about 100 clients with false transcripts showing they had fulfilled medical requirements of schools they didn't attend. "Clients paid me from $5225 to $27,000 for my services, " DeMesones said. "In all I earned about $1.5 million in those three years. I only got to keep about $500,000 of this total. The rest went for bribes and expenses." 

Spokesman Review, December 8, 1984.