This year’s honorees include a Midwest retailer and two multi-store independents, one in New York and the other in New England.
Thai Lab AIGS Releases App to Verify Gemstone Reports
The program features a QR code scanner that confirms if a report is genuine.

Bangkok—The Asian Institute of Gemological Sciences (AIGS) has launched an app to verify its gemstone reports.
The Bangkok-based lab issued an alert to the international trade last summer that there were fake gemstone reports bearing the AIGS logo circulating in the market.
The lab said the fake reports have working QR codes but, when scanned, take users to AIGSThailand.co, instead of the correct website, AIGSThailand.com.
To protect clients, AIGS devised a lab report QR code scanner, which enables the user to scan the AIGS gemstone report and verify that it is genuine.
It can verify the AIGS Master Gemstone Report (MGR & MGRS), Full Report, Diamond Report, Master Jade Report (MJR) and Brief Report.
The app is directly linked to the lab’s security system, according to its information page, and stores only the report details.
The AIGS noted that it only works for reports issued after Aug. 1, 2011.
It also said that third-party QR code scanners can no longer verify AIGS reports.
“This new app is necessary in order to protect our customers,” AIGS Chairman Kennedy Ho said. “This is the most secure way to verify our reports from now on. I urge our customers to download the app for free on their smartphones, so that they can be absolutely certain that their report is genuine.”
The AIGS app is available now for free in the Apple and Google Play stores.
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