Initially, it seemed to be an isolated case. As early as 2017, stones were brought to the EPI laboratory with certificates from AGI Labs (India). The information on these documents in credit card format was grossly incorrect and did not match at all with the stones presented to us for examination. A mix-up? A forgery? - We could not explain it.
2021 we received over 20 stones for gemological examination, purchased on ebay with certificates signed AGI and IGL. 18 of them were grossly mislabeled. For example: multicolored synthetic quartz was certified as "tourmaline", synthetic sapphire as "natural sapphire", synthetic spinel as "grandidierite", the artificial product zirconia (CZ) as "titanite" etc. The remaining certificates were misleading to the declaration of treatments. For example: bright yellow colored corundum was declared as "Sapphire, enhanced".
At the end of the investigations, we could not imagine that these false certificates were written accidental or mistaken. We assume criminal intentions and therefore warn against thefake certificates of AGI and IGL, India.
Update April 2022
Still ebay traders are doing their dirty work with imitation gemstones and fake certificates.
Recently we were presented with several stones with IGL certificates, which turned out to be imitations upon closer examination. Among them: green glas as "Emerald" and synthetic sapphire as "Natural Sapphire".
We therefore have to renew our warning against these fraudulent offers with fake certificates signed AGI und IGL.
The design of the credit-card-sized certificates has apparently changed, but not the alleged fraudulent intent.