FOREZA · Agarwood Education · Industry Exposé · 5 Frauds Explained
By FOREZA Master Grader · 2026-06-05 · 9 min read · Agarwood Education
The Kynam market is a buyer's minefield. The five frauds below account for the majority of complaints in the global agarwood trade. Each one has a specific detection method, and each one is something we have personally encountered at our workshop when buyers send us samples to verify. Knowing the scam is the single best protection.
TL;DR
- The five most common Kynam scams are: plantation wood, fragrance-soaked beads, sugar-water pre-soak, foreign-origin mislabel, and "vintage" stories.
- Each can be detected with a specific test, and three of them are caught by the home tests in How to Tell if Agarwood Is Real.
- The single best protection is a hand-signed certificate of authenticity from a workshop that states a specific town — not a region. See Certificate of Authenticity.
Scam 1 — Plantation Wood Sold as Wild Kyara
Wood from 5–10 year old plantation Aquilaria, force-inoculated with chemicals to induce resin formation in months rather than decades. The wood looks dark and resinous on the surface but has very little natural oleoresin inside.
How to Detect
The water-sinking test is the most reliable detector. Plantation-wood chips almost never sink. They have a uniform surface color without the irregular resin veins that characterize natural formation. For a deeper look at the formation process, see How Kynam Forms in the Wild.
Why It Persists
Plantation wood is cheap to produce and looks like Kyara to an untrained eye. The price differential is enormous — plantation chips might sell for $20/kg while Sinking-grade Kyara sells for $30,000+/kg. The margin attracts fraudsters.
Scam 2 — Fragrance-Soaked Beads
Lower-grade Aquilaria beads (sometimes even non-Aquilaria wood) soaked in synthetic oud oil or perfume. The smell is strong at first but fades within weeks.
How to Detect
The aroma test (cool burn at 80–120 °C). Authentic Kyara releases a multi-layered scent that persists for decades. Fakes release a single flat note that fades within minutes. You can also test by leaving the beads in a sealed container for 24 hours and then smelling them: authentic Kyara will still be aromatic, treated beads will be noticeably weaker.
Why It Persists
The initial aroma is genuinely strong, so a quick in-store test passes. The fraud is only visible over weeks or months. Tourist markets, online resellers, and "limited time" sales are common channels.
Scam 3 — Sugar-Water Pre-Soak to Force a "Sink"
Wood soaked in concentrated sugar water to artificially raise density. The piece passes the water-sinking test the first time, but the surface becomes sticky and crystals form as the wood dries.
How to Detect
Touch the surface. Authentic Sinking-grade wood feels dry, smooth, and resinous; sugar-soaked wood feels tacky. The smell of sugar is also detectable on the surface. If a piece fails any of these checks, the water test result should be discounted.
Why It Persists
The scam exploits buyers who test once and assume the result is permanent. The scam also works on the home test itself — a sugar-soaked piece genuinely sinks. The fix is to dry the piece for 48 hours and retest. Sugar-soaked wood that dries out will float or bob, while authentic Sinking-grade continues to sink.
Scam 4 — Foreign-Origin Mislabeling
Wood from Hainan, Vietnam, Indonesia, or Cambodia sold as "Chinese Guanzhu" at a markup. The aroma profile is different (often sharper, less sweet), but the price difference is significant.
How to Detect
Ask for a Certificate of Authenticity that states a specific town, not just a country. FOREZA certificates state "Guanzhu Town, Dianbai District, Maoming City, Guangdong, China." A certificate that says "China" or "Asia" is not specific enough. For the full certificate layout, see Certificate of Authenticity.
Why It Persists
The end consumer often cannot tell the difference between Guanzhu and Vietnamese Kyara by aroma alone. The price premium for Guanzhu is 20–40% over Vietnamese material of similar grade, which creates a strong incentive for fraudsters to mislabel.
Scam 5 — "Vintage 50-Year-Old" Stories
Sellers add a romantic backstory — "vintage," "antique," "50-year-old" — to justify a high price. The story is unverifiable and often fabricated.
How to Detect
The certificate should include a batch number, a date issued, and a grader's signature. If the certificate is missing those fields, walk away. Authentic vintage wood exists, but it is rare and documented — the document trail is the proof. For a deeper look at how to read a certificate, see Certificate of Authenticity.
Why It Persists
The "vintage" story is a psychological marketing tool. Buyers who think they are getting an antique are willing to pay 2–3x the non-vintage price. The story is hard to disprove in the moment, and by the time the buyer realizes the wood is recent, the seller is gone.
! Warning
If a seller uses "ultra sinking," "super sinking," "AAA Kyara," "1000-year-old wild agarwood," or any similar term with no industry definition, treat it as a red flag. The four standard grades (Sinking-grade / Semi-Sinking / Chips / Raw Material) are the only terms with consistent meaning across the industry. See Agarwood Grading & Authenticity.
The 3 Home Tests That Catch Most Frauds
Three reliable home tests, each takes under 5 minutes. Run all three before any purchase decision.
| Test | Catches |
|---|---|
| Visual Inspection | Plantation wood (uniform color), stained wood (glossy surface), and "vintage" stories that don't match the wood's actual appearance. |
| Water-Sinking | Plantation wood (floats), mislabeled grades (claims of Sinking but doesn't sink), and sugar-soaked wood (initially sinks but floats after drying). |
| Aroma (Cool Burn) | Fragrance-soaked wood (fades within minutes), and any wood whose scent is inconsistent with multi-layered Kyara profile. |
For the full step-by-step of each test, see How to Tell if Agarwood Is Real and Sinking-Grade Agarwood Test.
The Best Protection: A Workshop You Can Verify
The five scams above are not random. They all exploit one specific weakness: the buyer's inability to verify the source. A workshop you can verify — that has a physical address, a public certificate process, and a documented supply chain — eliminates the source of most frauds.
Three things to look for in a workshop:
- Physical address in a known agarwood region. FOREZA is in Guanzhu Town, Maoming, China. See Our Story.
- Master Grader by name with a hand-signed certificate. See Certificate of Authenticity.
- CITES documentation on request. See Sourcing & CITES Ethics.
Single-Origin
Guanzhu Town, Dianbai District, Maoming City, Guangdong, China — the historical "Capital of Chinese Agarwood." Every FOREZA piece is traceable to this origin.
Not Vietnam. Not Indonesia. Not Hainan. 100% authentic Guanzhu agarwood.
Test a Verified FOREZA Piece
Every product ships with a hand-signed Certificate of Authenticity. If a piece fails any of the three home tests, we refund you in full.
Discover Kyara →Continue Exploring
- How to Tell if Agarwood Is Real (3 tests)
- Sinking-Grade Agarwood Test
- Why Your "Kynam" Might Just Be Chemically Induced
- Agarwood Grading & Authenticity (Pillar Page)
- Certificate of Authenticity
FOREZA Master Grader
Direct from Guanzhu, the Capital of Chinese Agarwood. Reach us at zhangxiaobao217@gmail.com.