Forgery Prevention Tips - Forgery, authenticate documents, legal, American College of Forensic Examiners

INTRODUCTION:

Firstly let's define forgery. A forgery is any instrument, document or human effort that has been presented as one author's work when it is in reality another's. In most cases, benefit is gained by the individual or institution presenting the falsity. Most often the benefit is financial, but sometimes it is for glory or raised stature such as the famous "Etruscan" statue at the Metropolitan that was discovered to be manufactured in the Etruscan style, or the well known forgeries that were based on the non-existent Howard Hughes biography.

Many times in history, the fakery was accepted - a so-called 'perfect forgery'. Why? Because it was never questioned. In the rare instance it was questioned, it may have passed scrutiny due to the inexperience of the examiner...

One might suppose that the technology was not in place in the dark ages to bring light to the crime. While the overt detection of forgeries is a fairly new science - the first book was written in 1920 by Albert S. Osborn - the tools remain the same as they were in Shakespeare's time: the Brain and the Eye. Given the right samples for comparison, any well trained Handwriting Expert should be able to detect a false signature without much difficulty. The computer, the laser and the scanning electron microscope as well as other esoteric instrumentation are used today to aid discovery, but the result is still dependent upon the experienced document examiner and his or her application of knowledge and skill.

Today a person's identity is comprised of numbers, data and files. One might say that individuality has gone by the boards. But no; a signature is still the standard for contracts, checks and other important financial transactions, not to mention wills and other legal documents.

In my job for the last fifty years or so as a Forensic Document Examiner, I have encountered many forgeries. These forgeries occurred not only in signatures, but also in amendments, erasures, inserts and complete rewriting of records. Follow me while I walk you through of the cases in which I have been consulted. I'll also give you pointers on how to prevent them from happening to you.

CASE HISTORY:
A woman purchased a used car for $5,500.00. She put down $750.00 and requested that the dealer provide her with a loan for the remainder. On signing the loan papers at the dealer's for $4,750.00, she made sure that all the proper blanks were filled. No copy of the bill of sale was provided. She was told that the loan would have to be processed and the papers would be mailed to her.

When the payment book arrived with the copy of the transaction, she thought no more about it other than noting the monthly amount. About a year later, she wanted to make a lump sum payment for the remainder of the loan and retrieved the contract to determine what she owed. Imagine her horror when she saw that the loan was for $15,000.00. When she reached the dealer on the telephone, all she got was double talk. They did manage to tell her however, in no uncertain terms, that unless she honored the full amount of the contract, she would be sued. She quickly contacted an attorney who asked her for the original contract she had signed. She gave her attorney the contract she had received in the mail and when asked whether she had actually signed this contract, she said she could not be sure. Her signature looked funny, but she could not tell. Her attorney contacted me. When I received the original document, I asked for samples of her writing from canceled checks written about the same date as the contract, comparing them under a stereoscopic microscope. This exploded the writing so that I could follow, stroke for stroke, her natural handwriting and make comparisons to the questioned contract. In this instance, the signature was not real and she successfully prosecuted the car dealer.

How to keep this from happening to you?
Simple.

Whenever you sign something - anything - make sure you have a copy for
your files.

Keep your receipt.

Some establishments tell you that they will give you a copy of the receipt you just signed when the item is delivered such as in the case discussed above. Don't go for it. If it's their usual procedure, that's fine - only if you get a carbon copy or photocopy of the document you signed, with your signature on it, BEFORE you leave the premises. Remember, it is your legal right to get a copy. If you are refused, take back the contract and tear it up. It's one thing to be pleasant, it's another to allow yourself to be taken.

I can't tell you the number of cases involving forged contracts for that Cadillac - or Toyota - or whatever. Their complaints? Listen:

The price was not the price to which they had agreed
The mileage was not what they had understood it to be
The model, or color, or other features were not what they expected.

I have found on occasion that the signature is not a forgery. All may not be lost in these instances. Close examination reveals crucial aspects of the bill of sale itself different. It could be an added figure. It could be inserted or deleted words. A check mark may have been added or removed. In those instances, the original contract is the best evidence. A photocopy will give only minimal information. In order to prove that a photocopy is a true copy of the original it must be compared against that original. If the contract has been 'lost' or otherwise destroyed, it is more difficult - though not impossible - to determine whether it has been altered. Here again, the client would have saved himself, time, money and trouble if he had only gotten either the original signed document or a copy before he walked out the door.

The best evidence is always the original. (A signature in ink is considered an original. Many firms have photo-copied or printed contracts which are used instead of typing or printing out the terms each time and simply have the buyer or client sign that copy.)

CASE HISTORY:
A woman called me about her problem. She was recently widowed and bogged down with her deceased husband's affairs. At the funeral, she was presented with an IOU for $ 10,000.00 with what appeared to be her husband's signature. She maintained that her husband would never have lent out that amount without consulting her and denied payment. Besides, the was something decidedly unusual about the signature. The estate was sued for $ 10,000.00 on the strength of the note. I examined the original note along with several canceled checks written by the decedent - again around the date that was on the contract.

It is not unusual after an individual dies a signed contract or other official looking document outlining huge debts or ownership of valuable property appears. Sometimes we find the signature to be valid and can do no more.

I have seen in my time several hundreds of contracts. I have also seen many attempts at extortion in one form or another. In this instance, there was an unusual aspect of this IOU that just did not fit. The writing appeared to be the dead man's. One would have a difficult time proving otherwise. However, it did not look like his signature. It matched his writing on the body of each check. This individual had a slight variation in his signature that distinguished it from his regular script. Also, the placement of the name on the sheet was not kosher. The signature was angled in such a way as to take up an unusual space on the sheet. I was able to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that the name on the IOU had been written by the husband, not signed. Pure guesswork led me to the conclusion that the perpetrator had requested the husband to write his name on a blank sheet of paper using some ruse such as "How do you spell your name?" While my theory was never acknowledged as correct, I saw a guilty look cross the face of the gentleman presenting the IOU.

I was able to prove that the testator had simply written his name on a blank sheet of paper. While we could tell from the rest of his writing that he had actually written his name, we could also tell from his signatures that this rendition was not intended to ratify the IOU. Some more pointers:

Do not sign a blank sheet of paper.
Do not sign a form in which the blanks have not been filled in. If there are necessary blanks, initial those parts to show that they are intentionally left incomplete.
Do not do business when you are ill, under stress and/or under the influence.
The courts do not take kindly to those excuses. Your signature is your signature and it is the one of the last strongholds of individuality in this century and the next. Therefore, if your name is inscribed, unless you can prove it's a forgery, you must take responsibility.
Devise a signature that is particularly yours.
It may resemble the rest of your writing with a few variations that people will find hard to copy. Legibility is not the key here, individuality is. Some people make their capital letters larger, or place them in a particular sequence. Often there is a flourish built into the final stroke. The more your signature looks like your regular script, the easier (read "more tempting") it is for people to copy. Practice subtle differences: The size/shape/angle of the capitals. The punctuation. The spacing between your first and last name, and/or initial. There are as many variations in writing as there are people - make up your own and you will have a signature that is difficult to forge.
CASE HISTORY:
A well known businessman in New York City had the habit of making four loops stand as his signature. One day, the businessman found what appeared to be his four loops placed on a billion-dollar contract with no idea of how it got there. He swore up and down that he did not or would not sign a contract such as this. Several other contracts the businessman had presented as valid were perfect for getting into the heart of the four spurious loops. The speed and pressure of the forgery were the key points on which we proved the forgery.
Another well to do businessman, this time in Sweden, had a very legible, school form type of signature. He, too, found his name on a contract which was so silly that no businessman worth his salt would have signed. By comparing his signatures on other contracts signed on or about the same day, we were able to prove the forgery.
Though both these cases were different, they were similar in one respect: the signatures looked easy to copy. In each instance, only an experienced Handwriting Expert could tell that the signatures on both contracts were forgeries.
Is your signature too easy to copy? Doctors, lawyers and businessmen have often used a scribble to show how important and/or busy they are. The scribble is the easiest target for forgers! The closer to school form the signature is, the harder it is to copy. Idiosyncratic signatures may be the prime target for forgers, but they are not successful. So long as there are letter formations in the name, it is difficult to copy.
Practice making your signature completely individual.
How to do it? Simple: Write your name as if you were going to be marked on your penmanship. Then, write it again and again, changing the writing to your most comfortable style. Vary some aspect of the letter formation so it does not copy your regular script.
Forgers will reproduce a passable image of your capital letters, the size and maybe the slant of a signature. But it is impossible for them to copy all the aspects of your writing. When testifying, I explain the difficulty by using the image of a coat that is too small. Because the wearer (read forger) is cramped in it, it looks uncomfortable - as does the counterfeit writing. Copyists are so intent on reproducing your name that they often misspell it. If you're accused of having signed a document that you don't remember signing, look at the spelling first. Consider a spelling variation that can be made legal. To the best of my knowledge - and I'm not an attorney - it is legal to change your name, so long as you don't intend to use the change to defraud.
Incidentally, don't expect to do a rubber stamp copy of your name each time. That is physically impossible. But, you will establish your own personal writing rhythm and pressure as well as speed that is comfortable - and identifiably yours. You will then have a signature that is difficult to forge.
CASE HISTORY:
An aged woman checked into a New York hospital for a series of operations on May 1, 1992. On that date, she signed a consent form to have an operation. She signed additional forms on May 3, 4, 5 and 10. Each signature was weaker than the last. She never recovered from the last operation.
When the $ 150,000.00 estate was in the process of being settled, a nephew arrived with a typewritten letter over a signature of the deceased stating that he was to get $75,000.00 as his inheritance. Since this document was dated well after the woman had completed her will in 1987, the claim had to be addressed.
An alert attorney noted that the signature on the typewritten letter looked very much like her writing of 1978 and 1987, much smoother than the signatures which appeared on the hospital consent forms of 1992. The questioned signature was dated May 1st, the same day the first hospital consent form.
When I was called in, the first thing I noted, aside from the strength of the writing, was that the name of the deceased, "Maria" was spelled with a definite "a" at the end of all the true signatures I examined, including those when she was very ill in the hospital. The signature on the typewritten letter was spelled "Marie".
I really did not have to go much further than that, despite the fact that the signature had all the classic signs of forgery such as pauses, pen lifts, shakiness not attributable to illness, and so forth - not to mention the strength of the writing. See Pointer Six above.
CASE HISTORY:
This is one on me. I tripped on the sidewalk in a small New Jersey town and went to the local hospital emergency room with a badly skinned knee. Since I was on business and had an appointment, I accepted the band-aid that was proffered and began to leave. The nurse requested that I sign the statement which she would forward to my company for reimbursement. There were several blank spaces and I said I would not sign. She insisted. I was late, so I signed. The following month I received a bill from the hospital for $ 295.00 for bandages and treatment that I never received! I have been involved in so many cases where someone knowingly signed a contract that was not completed. Or, worse yet, signed a contract that had no numbers or data in it at all. Then, it becomes a matter of you're the canary, and you've just been swallowed! A handwriting expert can be of no help at all in these cases.
Never sign a document or paper in blank!

CASE HISTORY:
People frequently bring lawsuits against professionals in today's litigious society. Fortunately for both the professional and the client, records are kept of visits and procedures both at the office visits and hospital stays in most instances. Those records are used to refresh the professional's memory. Often these records are crucial to proving the specialist's reasons for acting as he or she did.
A patient - let's call him Frank - who lived in Atlantic City was suing a doctor for not telling him certain information which had to do with his condition. Thinking he was all right, he continued on his way until he came down with a severe degenerative disease. Frank could have been saved the pain had he been informed on how to moderate his activities and been given certain medication which would make him much more comfortable. When I examined the records dated from 1970 to 1990, they seemed to have been done in sequence with different pens and variations in the writing which would be natural had the records been written by the doctor at each visit. I gave my client the report, but he was not satisfied. He KNEW that somehow the records had been altered. Fortunately, this same attorney had been involved in another case against this very same doctor some years earlier and still had records in his files which he made available for my scrutiny. The second set of records - for a patient we'll call Bill - was executed over the same period of time: 1970 through 1990. This gave us the exact information we needed to prosecute that doctor.
Side by side examination brought out that Bill's records - the second set - was written by the same doctor with subtle changes of style throughout the twenty years. This is not unusual. People's writings vary over time. It is rare for a writer to have exactly the same script and/or signature after four or five years. The first set of records - Frank's - were written in the same style throughout the 'twenty year' period.
The doctor who 'doctored' Frank's records had used different pens and wrote each entry with a significant space of time between. When something is written at one sitting, the writing remains essentially the same throughout. If one gets up, or gets a telephone call, or has a conversation between entries, there is a visible difference in the writing, though it is still identifiably that of the writer. However, the differences in 'Frank's' chart did not match the twenty year space of differences shown in 'Bill's' chart.
Keep samples of your writing through the years.
Canceled checks are excellent. If you are one of those people that have different signatures for different instances such as one signature for checks and regular business, another for formal documents such as wills, contracts, etc. and perhaps a third for friends and family, keep representative copies of them all -- at least a dozen of each. Mark them for the year in which they were written. This will help if someone tries to copy a 1980 signature in 1995.
CASE HISTORY:
Jeremy's fascinating case was that of a dentist who was being sued for not telling his patient that his gums were deteriorating. Finding himself in pain a year later, he went to another dentist who had to pull out all his teeth. He immediately sued his former dentist whose attorneys sent copies of the dentist's chart to Jeremy's counselor. These were forwarded to a Dental Expert Witness. The dentist's office records were included. On preparation for trial, discovery procedures were instituted that requested all copies of all documents relating to the case be again forwarded to the plaintiff's (suer's) attorney.
When Jeremy's attorney contacted me, I looked at the photocopies, and, as usual, requested the original documents. Much is lost in the photocopying process that only the original can give you. On comparing the first photocopies against the originals, I found that the original dental chart did not match the photocopy that was sent at the start of the suit.
On the rest of the chart - the contemporaneous notes, not only were there insertions of information in unusual places, but also additions to some notes - all in different pens!
Photocopies are invaluable, both as backups for the originals, but also for proof. When a contract is signed or contemporaneous records are kept and photocopied, the original often stays with one party and a photocopy is given to the other party. Sometimes the photocopy, too, is signed in ink. I have been involved in matters where a contract is changed somewhere between the signing and the evidence in the courtroom. When asking for the original, I am often told 'it is lost' [which is very convenient]. However, comparison of the photocopies will show discrepancies the perpetrator never realizes.

TRAVEL TIPS: In your peregrinations, whether day to day from home to office or work place or shopping center or to the moon:
- Keep all financial paraphernalia in a safe place. Blank checks, credit cards and identification papers. These are what frauds and thieves are looking for.
- Don't take everything with you - only what is needed for the immediate purpose.
- Put them where pickpockets cannot reach them - or.,
- Booby trap the checkbook or wallet or credit card case to keep them safe.
- Read everything you sign. Know exactly how much you are liable for when you purchase a shirt, a dinner or a car.
- Remember to take back your credit card on completion of a transaction.
CONCLUSION:

One can never be too careful or too trusting. There is a great difference today in procedures and responsibilities. When I was growing up, Daddy took care of all the details and I was told that my husband would do the same. Being a revolting child (take that any way you wish), I insisted on learning and doing things for myself. It's great having help. In business, it is traditional for an office staff to take care of details. These people, however, must be accountable. Frequent checks and balances are important.
Frequent checks and balances are important whether you have an office staff, a banker or a financial advisor or if you do it all yourself. If anyone makes off with your assets - you have only yourself to blame.
So. Learn all you can about how to protect your particular assets. Assets can include money, health, love and possessions. No one can be trusted to do it for you. It may be hard, but it pays off in the end.
Do it!
Renée C. Martin

[Back to Home]