Document Examination

1. Document Examination “The handwriting on the wall may be a forgery” —Ralph Hodgson, British poet

2. 1. currency 2. coins 3. painting 4. sculpture 5. signature 6. Baseball card 7. stamp 8. antique 9. check 10. movie 11. maps 12. passport 13. Birth certificate 14. diploma 15. Driver’s license 16. contracts 17. photos 18. identity 19. 20. Please Do Now Get a large white board and list 10 things that you think can be forged (faked)

3. What do you think a forensic document examiner can do?

4. I. The Document Examiner • Involves the examination of handwriting, ink, paper, etc. to ascertain source or authenticity • Their work usually involves examining _________ and _____________ to determine the _________ or _______________ of a questioned document. • QUESTIONED DOCUMENT: any object with handwriting or print whose source or authenticity is in doubt • Writing/markings on letters, checks, driver’s licenses, contracts, wills, voter registrations, passports, petitions, lottery tickets, walls, windows, doors, etc. handwriting source typescript authenticity

5. The Document Examiner • Must be able to recognize efforts to alter documents through ____________, ___________ or ________________ of words to alter or obscure the original meaning of a document. • Tries to recover the original contents of the writing • May reconstruct writing on charred or burned papers • Uncover the meaning of indented writings found on a paper pad after the top sheet has been removed • Click to see video overwriting erasures crossing out

6. The Document Examiner • Applies knowledge of microscopy, photography, chromatography to recognize and compare the individual characteristics of questioned and known authentic writings. • Thus, getting documents of known authorship or origin is critical to the outcome of the examination. • The uniquenessof handwriting makes this type of physical evidence, like fingerprints, one the few definitive individual characteristics available to the investigator.

7. Questioned Documents • Involves the examination of handwriting, ink, paper, etc. to ascertain source or authenticity • Examples include letters, checks, licenses, contracts, wills, passports • Investigations include: verification, authentication, characterizing papers, pigments, and inks

8. Related Fields • Historical Dating— the verification of age and value of a document or object • Fraud Investigation— focuses on the money trail and criminal intent • Paper and Ink Specialists— date, type, source, and/or catalogue various types of paper, watermarks, ink, printing/copy/fax machines, computer cartridges • Forgery Specialists— analyze altered, obliterated, changed, or doctored documents and photos • Typewriting Analysts— determine origin, make, and models • Computer Crime Investigators— investigate cybercrime

9. Please Do Now Click to Watch the video clip A reenacted scene of a member of the Dutch resistance at work faking documents to fool the Germans.

10. Forgery Videos • Click for video clip on Forgery Expert 4:27 min • Click for Possible Picasso art forgery 4:04 min • Why Fake History of Europe, Asia, Rome, Greece, Egypt? 6 min • Van Meegeren, Master Forger 6:11 min • Art Forger (John Myatt)his story 4:01min • Mystery of the Mansoor Amarna Collection 9:59 min • Document forgery ring busted 2:10 min

14. The Mansoor Amarna Collection • Mystery of the Mansoor Amarna Collection 9:59 min • The Louvre behind the Mansoor Amarna Collection 2:35 min • Fred Stross and The Mansoor Amarna Part 1 8:12 min • Fred Stross and The Mansoor Amarna Part 2 7:26 min

15. Legal Forgers/ Fakes • Legal art forger at work 1:38 min • Worlds most talented legal art faker Joachim Wittke • Legal Fake Art on TV Prime Time 3:34 min • M.C. Escher Spoofs 8:05 min

16. II. Handwriting Comparisons • The early stages of learning handwriting are characterized by a conscious effort to copy standard letter forms. • However, as writing skills improve, nerve and motor responses associated with the act of writing become subconscious. Zaner-Blaser method

17. Line Quality Word and Letter Spacing Letter Comparison Pen Lifts Connecting strokes Beginning and ending strokes Unusual Letter Formation Shading or pen pressure Slant Baseline Habits Flourishes or embellishments Diacritic Placement ( dot i’s, cross t’s,etc.) Handwriting Characteristics

18. Handwriting Handwriting analysis involves two phases: • Thehardware— ink, paper, pens, pencils, typewriter, printers • Visual examination of the writing

19. Handwriting Comparisons • Document experts continually testify to the fact that no two individuals write exactly alike. • Many factors comprise the total character of a person’s writing. • Individual variations associated with mechanical, physical, and mental functions make it extremely unlikely that any two people write identically. • Thus, the unconscious handwriting of two different individuals can never be identical.

20. Angularity Slope Speed Pressure letter and word spacing relative dimensions of letters connections pen movement writing skill and finger dexterity Variations in Handwriting Characteristics NATURAL VARIATIONS: Normal deviations found between repeated specimens of an individual’s handwriting. Variations are expected in:

21. Other Variations in Handwriting Characteristics • The arrangement of the writing on the paper • such as margins, spacing, crowding, insertions, and alignment. • Spelling, punctuation, phraseology, and grammar can be personal and help to individualize the writer. • Furthermore, the writing style of one individual may be altered beyond recognition by the influence of drugs or alcohol.

22. Handwriting Comparisons • No single handwriting characteristic can in itself be taken as the basis for a positive comparison. • The finalconclusion must be based on a sufficient number of common characteristicsbetween the known and questioned writing samples. • There are no hard and fast rules for a sufficient number of personal characteristics; it is a judgment call made by the expert examiner in the context of each case.

23. Handwriting Samples • The subject should not be shown the questioned document • The subject is not told how to spell words or use punctuation • The subject should use materials similar to those of the document • The dictated text should match some parts of the document • The subject should be asked to sign the text • Always have a witness

24. Handwriting Exemplars • The collection of an adequate number of known writings (exemplars) is most critical for determining the outcome of a handwriting comparison. • Known writing should contain some of the words and combination of letters present in the questioned document and be adequate in number to show the range of natural variations in a suspect’s writing. • The writing implement and paper should also be alike. • The writing of dictation and several pages may serve to minimize attempts at deception.

25. Handwriting Exemplars Genuine Mickey Mantle signature SIMULATED FORGERY:made by copying an actual model or a mental image of a genuine signature. This is a traced signature done following a genuine signature or overlaying a genuine signature and using transmitted light to follow the line of writing. http://www.fbi.gov/hq/lab/fsc/backissu/april2001/held.htm#Training%20of%20FBI%20Questioned%20Document%20Examiners

26. *Methods of Forgery • Simulated forgery: one made by copying a genuine signature • Traced forgery: one made by tracing a genuine signature • Blind forgery: made without a model of the signature

27. SIGNATURE FORGERY

29. Check Fraud Forgery Counterfeit Alterations Paper Money Counterfeit Identity Social Security Driver’s license Credit Cards Theft of card or number Art—imitation with intent to deceive Microscopic examination Electromagnetic radiation Chemical analysis Contracts—alterations of contracts, medical records Types of Forgery

30. Famous Forgers + Forgeries • Major George Byron (Lord Byron forgeries) • Thomas Chatterton (Literary forgeries) • John Payne Collier (Printed forgeries) • Dorman David (Texas Declaration of Independence) • Mark Hofmann (Mormon, Freemason forgeries) • William Henry Ireland (Shakespeare forgeries) • Clifford Irving (Howard Hughes forgery) • Konrad Kujau (Hitler Diaries) • James Macpherson (Ossian manuscript) • George Psalmanasar (Literary forgery) • Alexander Howland Smith (Historical documents)

31. Collecting Handwriting Exemplars • Generally, material written within 2 - 3 years of the disputed writing is satisfactory for comparison. Why? For most adults, basic writing changes are comparatively slow.

32. Collecting Handwriting Exemplars • Gilbert v. California , Supreme Court uphheld the taking of exemplars before the appointment of counsel. • Also ruled that handwriting samples are identifying physical characteristics that lie outside Fifth Amendment protection. • United States. v. Mara, Supreme Court ruled that taking a handwriting sample did not violate Fourth Amendment rights (unreasonable search and seizure)

33. Forensic Linguist • Experts that look at the linguistic content (the way something is written) of a questioned document. • Language that is used can help to establish the writer’s: • age • level of education • gender • professional training • ethnicity • ideology

34. Typewriters and Printing Devices • The two requests most often made of the examiner in connection with the examination of typewriters and printing devices are: • whether the make and model of the typewriter and printing devices used to prepare the questioned document can be identified. • whether a particular suspect typewriter or printing device can be identified as having prepared the questioned document. • In order to do this, the individual type character’s style, shape, and sizeare compared to a complete reference collection of past and present typefaces.

35. Characteristics From Use of Typewriters and Printing Devices • As is true for any mechanical device, use of a printing device will result in wear and damage to the machine’s moving parts. • These changes will occur in a fashion that is both random and irregular, thereby imparting individual characteristics to the printing device. • The document examiner has to deal with problems involving business and personal computers, which often produce typed copies that have only subtle defects. • Another area of investigation relates to the typewriter ribbon, which may contain type impressions.

36. Digital Technology • In the cases of photocopiers, fax machines, and computer printers an examiner may be called on to identify the make and model of a machine or to compare a questioned document with test samples from a suspect machine. • A side by side comparison is made between the questioned document and the printed exemplars to compare markings produced by the machine. • Examinerscompare • transitory defect marks, • fax machine headers, • toner, • toner application methods, and • mechanical and printing characteristics.

37. Photocopiers • Transitory defect marks can develop from debris on • the glass platen • inner cover • mechanical parts • These defect marks can become points of comparison

38. Fax Machines • TTI (transmitting terminal identifier) header is at the top of each fax page • Identifies where the fax originated from • The TTI and the document’s text should have different type styles • TTI can be fradulently made and put in the proper position on a fax copy. • Detected by a microscopic examination

39. Determining Fax Machine’s Model Type • Start by analyzing the TTI type stle • Fonts are determined by the sending machine • Number of characters, their style and their position in the header are best evaluated by checking a collection of TTI fonts in a database, such as from the American Society of Questioned Documets Examiners database

40. Do A House Divided Lab • Hand out 6 shredded documents in zip lock baggies with the lab sheet. • When you have completed putting a document back together, let the teacher check it and then put in back in its proper numbered baggie. • Start another document.

41. Determining Computer Printer Model • Requires extensive analysis of specific printer technology and type of ink used. • By visual and microscopic techniques • Character shapes, toner differentiation and toner application methods are determined with a low-power microscope • Toner analysis involves identification of inorganic and organic components of the toner • Printers are usually either: • Impact prints • EX. Thermal and dot-matrix printers • Nonimpact printers • EX. Ink jet printers and laser printers

42. Typewriters • TWO questions to ask: • Can the make and model of the typewriter used to type the questioned document be identified? ° Need a complete reference collection of past and present typefaces used by typewriter manufactures. • Can a particular suspect typewriter be identified as having prepared the questioned document? ° Need to compare questioned document to exemplars prepared form the suspect typewriter *** May also look at the ribbon to check the type impressions left on it

43. IV. Alterations, Erasures, and Obliterations • Documents are often altered or changed after preparation, to hide their original intent or to perpetrate a fraud (forgery).

44. Which are the real stamps? The forgeries? click 2nd row are all forgeries from different people

45. Forgery of German Identity Card(made in a POW camp during WW II)

46. Stamp made by etching aluminum with acid: the aluminum was cut from a camp cooking utensil. (made in a POW camp during WW II)

47. IV. Alterations, Erasures, and Obliterations OBJECTIVE: List some of the techniques document examiners use to uncover: • alterations, • erasures, • obliterations, and • variations in pen inks.

48. “U.S. Take over of the Amazon Forest” Myth Since 2000, a forgery has circulated falsely claiming that the United States and the United Nations have assumed control of the Amazon rainforest in order to safeguard its treasures for all mankind.

49. IV. Alterations, Erasures, and Obliterations • Document examiners must deal with evidence that has been changed in several ways, such as through alterations, erasures, and obliterations. • Erasures by rubber erasers, sandpaper, razor blade or knife to remove writing or typing disturb the fibers of the paper and are readily apparent when examined with a microscope. • If an alteration is made to a document with ink differing form the original, it can sometimes be detected due to differences in the luminescence properties of the inks. • Obliteration of writing by overwriting or crossing out to hide the original writing can be revealed by infrared radiation, which may pass through the upper layer of writing while being absorbed by the underlying area.

50. IV. Alterations, Erasures + Obliterations • Documents are often altered or changed after preparation, to hide their original intent or to perpetrate a fraud (forgery). • ERASURES: The removal of writing, typewriting, or printing from a document, normally accomplished by either chemical means or an abrasive instrument. • OBLITERATION:Blotting out or smearing over writing or printing to make the original unreadable.