Hi All,
One of our sales associates was doing some sales & marketing researches in a Middle Eastern country. Although we’ve heard horror scam stories in that country, and how the retail intentionally and unintentionally sell every stone as a D/VVS1 to their customers, whatever the real grade is (of course without cert, or with the retail shop certificate)
However, my associate found what we’ve had never imagined, he was touring some major retail shops in a high street market. He was acting as a customer, and he noticed many stores that sell high quality stones with GIA certs for very low prices, for example a retail shop offered him a 0.55-ct H/VVS1 for negotiable retail price of US$ 1280 (46% off the list!!), he examined the stone and he graded it as M-/VS2- stone. And surprisingly, he found that the girdle is laser inscribed with the number on the GIA cert. but the font wasn’t the same we used to see, and also the spacing between the numbers is very tight (numbers were touching each other). Moreover, after I checked few certs numbers, I found that most of them are valid! Also the dossier itself looks valid (watermarks, micro-fonts..etc).
My guess is, someone is collecting real GIA certificates (left by previous customers, or replacements issued by GIA..etc), then use them with other lower quality stones of close weight after inscribing the cert. number on its girdles.
Anyone met something like that or have any information about the source of this stones ? I knew that the main sources of diamonds in this country is Dubai and Thailand, but we’re trying to trace the source of those fake certs as it directly affect our business plans in that country. So any information would really appreciated…
One of our sales associates was doing some sales & marketing researches in a Middle Eastern country. Although we’ve heard horror scam stories in that country, and how the retail intentionally and unintentionally sell every stone as a D/VVS1 to their customers, whatever the real grade is (of course without cert, or with the retail shop certificate)
However, my associate found what we’ve had never imagined, he was touring some major retail shops in a high street market. He was acting as a customer, and he noticed many stores that sell high quality stones with GIA certs for very low prices, for example a retail shop offered him a 0.55-ct H/VVS1 for negotiable retail price of US$ 1280 (46% off the list!!), he examined the stone and he graded it as M-/VS2- stone. And surprisingly, he found that the girdle is laser inscribed with the number on the GIA cert. but the font wasn’t the same we used to see, and also the spacing between the numbers is very tight (numbers were touching each other). Moreover, after I checked few certs numbers, I found that most of them are valid! Also the dossier itself looks valid (watermarks, micro-fonts..etc).
My guess is, someone is collecting real GIA certificates (left by previous customers, or replacements issued by GIA..etc), then use them with other lower quality stones of close weight after inscribing the cert. number on its girdles.
Anyone met something like that or have any information about the source of this stones ? I knew that the main sources of diamonds in this country is Dubai and Thailand, but we’re trying to trace the source of those fake certs as it directly affect our business plans in that country. So any information would really appreciated…