MajorsDec 24, 2024
Nordstrom Family, Partner to Take Retailer Private in $6B DealMembers of the founding family have partnered with Mexican retail company El Puerto de Liverpool to acquire Nordstrom.
GradingJul 24, 2018
Thai Lab AIGS Warns Trade About Fake Gemstone Reports
They look identical to genuine AIGS reports but have working QR codes that take users to a different website.
Bangkok-based laboratory AIGS provided this snapshot of one of the fake gemstone grading reports that are currently circulating.
Bangkok—The Asian Institute of Gemological Sciences recently issued a warning to the international trade that there are fake gemstone reports bearing the AIGS logo circulating in the market.
The AIGS is based in the Jewelry Trade Centre in Bangkok and issues hundreds of gemstone reports every day.
Chairman Kennedy Ho told National Jeweler the lab became aware of the issue when a client who was trying to verify a report on its website contacted them.
When the report didn’t come up on the site, the client sent the lab a picture of the report and AIGS discovered it was a fake.
The lab said the fake reports have working QR codes but, when scanned, they take users to AIGSThailand.co, instead of the correct website, AIGSThailand.com. 
Ho said the only way the trade can be sure a report is genuinely from AIGS is to check the lab’s website or to enquire via email, with a photo of the report attached, to info@aigsthailand.com.
He added the AIGS will be taking legal action “to the highest extent of the law” against the perpetrators and those who use the fake reports with the intent to mislead others.
He told National Jeweler they don’t yet know who is behind the fake reports, only that the fraudulent website was registered in April.
Ho also said they don’t know how many of these fake reports are on the market, but given the professional nature of the fraud, they “do not think these crooks went to all this trouble to make just one report.” 
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