The Gemological Institute of America was recently notified of three counterfeit grading reports that accompanied diamonds weighing 3.00 cts., 4.08 cts., and 5.01 cts., sold to a client in Johannesburg, South Africa.

After further investigation, it was found that not only were the reports fraudulent, but at least one of the accompanying diamonds was also high pressure/high temperature treated. Follow-up testing is being done for the other two diamonds.

The problem is not believed to be widespread and is limited to a small number of stones.

GIA, working in collaboration with the client and industry leadership in South Africa, funded private investigations that led to the arrest of one individual.

GIA provides a number of services to safeguard against the misrepresentation of a diamond and its report. For GIA diamond grading reports and GIA Diamond Dossiers® issued since Jan. 1, 2000, GIA Report Check is a free online service that lets customers confirm that the information contained in a report matches the data contained in GIA’s database.

For more information about these services and to access GIA Report Check, please visit www.gia.edu.

JCK