Fake EGL Diamond Certificate

[stearnzy33]

Hi. I recently purchased a diamond privately and didn't realize you could verify an EGL certificate online. I went on to EGL International's website and it came back as invalid. I then emailed them and they said they did not have record of the certificate.

The cert # is AZ 600723 (dated June 23, 2009) which does not seem to line up to the numbering system I've seen for EGL Certificates.

Here are some details on the diamond: 1.55CT, 7.52 x 7.45 x 4.59mm

Did I get "taken" on this or are there other EGL entities that this could have been certified through (i.e. EGL Israel??)

Thanks for your help.

 

[oldminer]

EGL-USA and EGL-Israel are at war with one another. I don't doubt they would not confirm your report if it is from one of th EGL labs they actually compete against. WHo sold it to you? WIll they support your effort to confirm the paper is authentic? Of course, there remains a strong possibility the paper is genuine and the grading is not worth the value of the paper.

 

[stearnzy33]

I bought the diamond directly from a large jeweler's store manger. I have not confronted him about it yet becuase I wanted to gather as much information on the situation as I could first, just to make sure he didn't give me a BS excuse. He still has the diamond becuase he is setting it in the engagement ring that I purchased. I trusted him mainly because it would seem way too risky for him to be selling counterfit stones as his reputation would be destroyed with Yelp, and other review websites, not to mention that corporate management of the jeweler he works for wouldn't be too happy.

The two things that worry me the most is the certificate number, it's not the standard 10 digits like others I've seen online. And the certificate spells out EGL as Gemological at the top of the certificate and the embossed stamp spells it Gemmological (two m's).

I'm going to call him tomorrow and see if he can get a verification from EGL and then take it to an appraiser once I get the diamond ring back. Not sure there's much I can do if it is fake.

Thanks for your input.

 

[denverappraiser]

EGL international has sort of a cryptic approach to their numbering but I don't recall ever seeing them use the prefix 'AZ'. That's not decisive and I'm not the one to ask in any case but if you called them and they said it's not thier work product, I see no reason to insist that it is. Their website lookup isn't always current but their phone and email people generally seem to be pretty good at recognizing their own work. Definitely talk to the seller although I'm not so sure I would 'confront' him at this point.

The EGL-Israel lab is part of EGL International. As Dave points out, EGL-USA is a completely different company (but I've never seen AZ from them either).

 

[Mayk]

The stone we purchased that didn't appraise was EGL International. The certificate was AA####. I also couldn't find it anywhere on line. We ended up sending the stone back and upgrading it to an AGS000. Best decision ever. There was a cost but it was worth it. Found the AGS certificate on line immediately.

 

[Kalrik]

I dont have much experience, but I noticed that only the new EGL certificates, the one's that are trifold and have the proportions diagram and light performance section, are the ones that show up in their database. Certs even from 2010 with the one sheet format, dont. Granted these still start with EGL**********