AIGS Launches App to Prevent Counterfeiting

RAPAPORT... The Asian Institute of Gemological Sciences (AIGS) haslaunched a mobile app that can verify its gemstone reports, following a recent slew of counterfeiting cases. "This new app is necessary in order to protect ourcustomers," AIGS chairman Kennedy Ho said last week. "This is the most secureway to verify our reports from now on." The app - which AIGS says is the first of itskind -adds an extra layer of protection that was not previously available with its QR-codeverification, the lab said last week. Forgers have been creating fake AIGS reports that look likegenuine ones, the organization warned the industry in July. The QR codes on those reportsdirected users to a fake website with the suffix co, rather than com. "This app was made to counter the counterfeiters," Ho told RapaportNews last week. "[It] will help our clients a great deal because when theapp is used to scan a fake report, the system will show a warning and will nottake you to a fake website." Third-party QR-code scanners will no longer be able toverify AIGS reports, the lab added. Image: Colored gemstones. (Renu.M/Shutterstock)