Forgery has been around for centuries, challenging individuals, businesses, and law enforcement agencies to detect and prove authenticity. With technology advancing rapidly, forgery methods have evolved, making it increasingly difficult to identify fake documents. Questioned document examination is a sub-discipline of forensic science that deals with the identification or authentication of a document by analyzing writing, signature, ink, paper, etc. Here in this blog, you will learn the basic and significant techniques used in detecting forgery in questioned documents.
Understanding Questioned Documents
A questioned document is any document that is in controversy as to its genuineness or otherwise. This may be contracts, wills, checks, passports, IDs, or a document as important as the manuscript of history. Questioned document examiners (QDEs) are specialists who study these documents in order to detect whether or not they were altered in some way.
Forgery can take many forms, including counterfeit, alterations, erasures, or even simulations of genuine handwriting or signatures. Document examiners use a variety of techniques to expose forgeries, each focusing on different elements of the document.
Handwriting Examination: Criteria In Identifying Original Work and Forgery
Handwriting examination is perhaps the most widespread method used for detecting fakes in documents and other writings. Like in fingerprints, there will be natural variations within two samples, one written by the same person as the other. Forgeries, on the other hand, often lack this natural variation.
Line Quality: An authentic writing therefore imitates the natural stylized curves. The line quality in forgeries is usually irregular or not smooth due to the forger’s unfamiliarity with the hand.
Pen Pressure: Handwriting is generally characterized by having normal variations in the pressure applied on paper by the pen. Expert investigators check for such distinctions in order to distinguish between true and forged handwriting.
Speed and Rhythm: The natural style will be fluid; there will be unchanging speed and a common pace, while that of the forgery will depict signs of a pause or slow action.
Writing identification is among the oldest techniques, used for detection of forging personal signatures and handwritten documents. Hence, the latest technologies today help in analyzing handwriting more effectively and accurately.
Ink Analysis: Identifying the Type and Age of Ink
Through ink analysis, one can yield a lot of information about any document. In the present-day operational forensic laboratories, one is able to perform a chemical investigation of ink with a view to ascertaining their compositions so as to be able to know if different pens were used.
Ink Composition: Some inks have certain chemical compounds that are distinct. The inks are somewhat identifiable by their brand and type, and their examination might also help confirm or deny the possibility of using a given pen.
Ink Aging: Components in ink erode at predetermined rates, facts that, when revealed to analysts, help them approximate ink’s age. This can bring recent additions into a document that used to go dated several years back.
Ink analysis can be invaluable for verifying the authenticity of documents like contracts and checks, where the timing and consistency of entries are crucial.
Paper Examination: Analyzing the Material and Age of Paper
Another important method in the field of questioned document examination is paper analysis. It frequently happens that documents originate from different time frames or come from various locations and, therefore, are made using different types of paper. That is why, analyzing the paper, forensic experts can outline some discrepancies.
Paper Composition: Various types of paper are produced from different fiber compositions and treated with various kinds of additives and coatings. Even when analyzed under a microscope, much of these elements will define the kind of paper and even the manufacturer.
Watermarks: The watermarks of many high-quality papers also bear the manufacturer details and, sometimes, the year of manufacture. In this case, the counterfeit document can be detected due to the fact that the watermark does not correspond to the stated origin of the document.
Paper Aging: Just like ink, paper ages and shows natural wear. Forensic scientists analyze these characteristics to see if they align with the document’s claimed age.
This technique is especially good in historical and legal records and other papers where authenticity is established by age and origin.
Indented Writing: Revealing Hidden Impressions
Indented writing is when a document has raised shadow-like impressions from writing on another page. Deceptive tactics may be discovered employing specialized devices such as the Electrostatic Detection Apparatus (ESDA) that make impressions invisible, which can be crucial while revealing for alterations.
Tracing Writing Patterns: If a document was changed or tempered, the indented writing from the preceding pages may reveal other writings or a change that was made.
Detecting Alterations: Sometimes, erased or overwritten text leaves faint impressions. Examiners can detect these impressions to understand the document’s true contents.
Indented writing analysis is useful in identifying changes made to wills, contracts, agreements, and any other document so that no hidden changes affect the original message.
Alteration and Erasure Detection
One of the types of forgery is alterations in which the portions of the document are changed to result in different meanings. Detecting erasures or alterations can be challenging, but forensic examiners use several techniques.
Ultraviolet (UV) and Infrared (IR) Light: Some inks and papers respond to UV light and IR distinctive from some other inks and papers. When a document is exposed to these lights, forensic experts are able to see other writings that may have been written over; for example, the ink may leave impressions that are invisible to the naked eye.
Chemical Erasure Detection: Chemicals do change the appearance of an item; some forgers remove writings by applying chemical reagents to the inked portion. Chemical analysis shows traces of such chemicals and is used to detect tampering since the chemicals leave behind their traces.
Microscopic Analysis: The scratches not detectable with the naked eye are identified when a forensic expert uses a microscope; this identifies details that are indicative of erasures and modifications.
These techniques are used frequently to verify frauds, contracts, and other documented records where alterations can significantly impact legal outcomes.
Digital Forensics: Analyzing Scanned and Printed Documents
With digital technology, document forgery now includes manipulated scans and printed copies. Digital forensics has thus become an essential tool in detecting forgeries on electronically created or altered documents.
Pixel Analysis: To check if a scanned or printed document has been altered, a digital forensics specialist looks at the pixels. When it comes to painting, irregular patterns of pixels are easy to distinguish alongside pasted areas along with the area that has been copied and modified.
Metadata Inspection: Metadata is data about data. Every digital document may contain metadata about its creation, author, and the program used to create this document. Modifications may shift certain pieces of data; regarding forgery, these are crucial.
Digital forensics is important in the current world, whereby cases of forgeries of documents on the internet, contractual documents, and even identification cards are detected.
Conclusion
The detection of forgery has improved a lot; technology is now able to help the document examiners in distinguishing altered and forged documents with great accuracy. Which means that while the methods of forgery are improving, so should the tools by which they can be identified.
A questioned document examiner engages these sophisticated methods of analysis and assists in avoiding fraud and preserving the credibility of significant documents. These professionals include forensic document examiners whose task is to dissect handwriting, ink, and other electronic interfaces in a bid to retain the reliability of written words.
In an age where forgeries are more prevalent than ever, the field of questioned document examination remains invaluable in safeguarding authenticity and justice.
December 01, 2024 - BY SIFS India