Editor’s Note
In response to a rise in fraudulent inscriptions on lab-grown diamonds, the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) is launching a same-day verification service. This new tool allows buyers to instantly confirm a diamond matches its official GIA report before purchase.
The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) hopes to counter the recent influx of lab-grown diamonds with fraudulent laboratory inscriptions by offering a same-day report verification service.
By using the service, which will begin next week, customers can verify before purchase whether the stone they are buying matches the corresponding GIA report, GIA announced on Tuesday. This step follows a series of cases in which GIA and other laboratories, including the Italian company Gem-Tech and the International Gemological Institute (IGI), reported that stones submitted for grading as natural were actually synthetic stones cut to resemble a natural stone graded by GIA.
GIA has trained law enforcement officers in the identification and forgery of diamonds, it said. It encourages any other gemological laboratory, any industry organization, or any individual who encounters a fake inscription to report it to the authorities and the institute so that appropriate action can be taken against any perpetrators, it added.
