February 10, 21 by John Jeffay
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(IDEX Online) - The GIA lab in Johannesburg has identified three cases of synthetic moissanite being submitted for grading with a fraudulent inscription.

It's a new development by unscrupulous dealers trying to pass off simulants as genuine diamonds.

The lab says most fakes are easily spotted, but in the first of three cases a colorless 1.02-ct round brilliant gem bore a GIA number corresponding to an E-color natural diamond of the same weight that had been graded in 2019. The inscription was not in a font used by the GIA.

The fraud was confirmed by subsequent spectroscopic and gemological analysis, according to the GIA's Quarterly Journal, Gems & Gemology.

After the GIS gave details of the first synthetic moissanite it found two further stones, also with fraudulent inscriptions. 

Pic shows the stone and its fraudulent inscription (partly redacted)...

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