How to Verify an IGI Report: Five Checks, From the Lookup to the Lab

Verifying an IGI report online takes two minutes and proves one thing: that the report exists. Proving the diamond in your hand is the one described takes a loupe, a scale and, for a large stone, a lab.

The distinction matters because of how recorded frauds work. In the cases found for this guide, a lab grown diamond travelled with paperwork from a natural one, and the stone, not the paper, gave it away.¹²

Each check below catches something the one before it cannot. The lookup catches a forged or altered report. The inscription, the measurements and a lab test catch a genuine report attached to the wrong stone.

For what each field on a report means, see how to read an IGI certificate. This guide is about proving one.

IGI has issued lab grown diamond reports since 2005, and every Draco piece ships with its IGI report.³

Type igi.org into your browser and open Verify Your Report. Enter the report number, or scan the QR code on the report. The page asks for the number alone, with no carat weight.

IGI presents its unique report numbers and QR codes as the way to confirm a report online, and the lookup page offers both: a report number field and a QR scan.⁴⁵

Type the address yourself rather than following a link or code supplied with the stone. One shortcut to avoid: igi.org/verify opens IGI's check for school diplomas, not grading reports. The report check sits at igi.org/Verify-Your-Report.⁵

The result shows what IGI recorded: shape and cut, measurements, carat, colour, clarity, finish grades, fluorescence, any inscription and comments, with a PDF copy of the report.⁵

Compare every field, not just the grades. A swapped stone can share a colour and clarity grade with a report. Measurements to a hundredth of a millimetre are much harder to match.

If the lookup returns nothing, or any detail differs from the paper, stop there and ask the seller to explain before any money moves. A genuine report has nothing to fear from its own record.

No official IGI verification app turned up in the search for this guide, so use the website.

A laser inscription on the girdle, the thin outer edge of the diamond, links the stone to its report. Under a 10x loupe, the inscribed number should match the report number exactly.

IGI co-created the modern laser inscription process and says most diamonds now carry one. Its guide still calls inscription optional, so a blank girdle on its own is not proof of fraud.⁶⁴

The inscription is tiny and can sit anywhere around the girdle, so turn the stone slowly under the loupe. A jeweller with a microscope can find it faster and photograph it for your records.

An inscription can be faked too. The Thailand stone carried a fake laser number. The Tel Aviv stone carried the real GIA report number of a natural diamond.¹²

So a matching inscription is necessary, not sufficient. It rules out a careless swap. It does not rule out a deliberate one.

A stone cut to imitate a report still has to hit its weight and its millimetres. Any jeweller can weigh a loose diamond and measure it in minutes, and a small gap is the first sign of a swap.

Fraudsters know it. GIA has reported lab grown diamonds with counterfeit inscriptions whose measurements and weights were almost identical to the natural diamond reports they copied.²

The tactic is not new. In 2021, GIA reported three moissanites engraved with report numbers for natural diamonds, and a mix of lab grown and treated natural diamonds carrying fraudulent report numbers.²

The Tel Aviv stone failed three ways. Spectroscopy showed a peak at 737 nanometres that pointed to lab growth, a cloud inclusion did not fit the natural stone's VVS1 grade, and its depth differed from the report.²

The Thailand stone had been cut and polished specifically to match a GIA report for a natural D flawless diamond. Its qualities closely matched the paperwork; only laboratory testing exposed it.¹

IGI warned that mismatches like these "could go unnoticed outside of a laboratory," particularly once a stone is set in jewellery.⁷

A finished piece such as a tennis bracelet can carry an IGI jewellery report instead of a single stone report. It describes the whole piece and accounts for every mounted stone.

IGI's lab grown jewellery report identifies all mounted stones, the precious metal content and any purity stamps. Centre stones get shape, measurements and the 4Cs only as far as the mounting permits. The cover is yellow.⁶

Verification changes with it. The questions become whether the piece in hand matches the stone count, the total weight and the metal on the report, and whether the number checks out online.

Read the metal line as carefully as the diamond line. A 14K stamp on a piece reported as 18K is as much a mismatch as a wrong carat weight.

From October 2020, IGI added a tamper evident Certieye label and an IGI seal to its natural diamond, coloured stone and jewellery reports, printed on tear resistant paper. Features like these make forgery harder, not impossible.

IGI's announcement named those three report types. It did not mention lab grown reports.⁸

Paper can be cloned. The Italian laboratory Gem-Tech told JCK that forging a report's paper and authentication systems is not particularly complex, and that laser engraving technology is now widely available.⁷

So treat the paper as a copy of a record, and the record as what counts. A cloned document still has to agree with what IGI holds online.

GIA's Report Check works the same way. It confirms that a report's information matches GIA's database; it does not claim to verify the stone itself.⁹

GIA's Tom Moses has urged buyers who lack a trusted relationship with a seller to have the grading report updated before completing a purchase.²

The checks take minutes and cost nothing until the last one. Run the online lookup before you pay, the inscription and measurements on delivery, and send a large stone to a lab if anything disagrees.

Ask for the report number before you pay, and run the lookup yourself. A seller who will not share the number before payment is a reason to walk away.

Ask which report a piece carries, too: one for the whole piece, or one for a single centre stone. They answer different questions.

Read the comments line as well. Since January 2021, IGI lab grown reports can name the growth method, CVD or HPHT, and state that a stone is as grown with no indication of post growth treatment. IGI notes these on request.³⁶

Every Draco piece carries 30 day returns, the Lifetime Authenticity Guarantee, free resizing, and free insured worldwide shipping to 25 markets, delivered duty paid with nothing collected at the door, and signature on delivery. Each piece is IGI certified, E to F colour and VS2 or better, and ships with its report, which can be verified free at IGI.org.

Browse lab grown diamond tennis bracelets, rings and earrings, or design a ring in the ring builder.