QUESTION DOCUMENT

EXAMINATION

Reporter:
Erimark Caraang
BS Criminology 3A
Objectives:

• To learn what is forgery

• To know the difference between standard document and question

document

• To learn about the genuine and forged signature characteristics

• To learn how to identify the genuine from the forged signature

 History of Forgery
The art of forgery is as old as the alphabet. The
crime of forgery has been practiced since ancient
times in every country where writing existed and
paper was used for financial transactions. Laws
against forgery can be traced to 80 bc when the
Romans prohibited the falsification of
documents that transferred land to heirs. Forgery
was prevalent in Europe in the Middle Ages.
Gradually laws were passed to prohibit forgeries
in every developed country, but it was difficult to
identify some of the highly skilled forgeries.
 TYPES OF FORGERY

To find out the characteristics of genuine and

forged signatures or documents, it is
important to know about the forgery types.
These are as follows:
 TYPES OF FORGERY

SIMULATED OR COPY FORGERY– Imitation or

copying a signature after practicing it several
times.
 TYPES OF FORGERY

FORGERY BY TRANSPLANTATION– When a
scanned signature of a genuine document is
posted or added in an unofficial document to
make it official.
 TYPES OF FORGERY

FORGERY BY IMPERSONATION– When an
individual tries to forge a signature by
personifying the person identity. The forged
signature can be exact or completely
different. 
 TYPES OF FORGERY

TRACE FORGERY– It is the easiest forgery to

detect because there is no natural variation
clause, and we can see the indentation marks.
Standard Document
A document in which the origin is known can be proven and
can legally be used as sample to compare with other things is
questioned.

Question Document
A document, usually related to matters involving criminal or
civil litigation, in which the originality, authenticity or background
is disputed.
 GENUINE AND FORGED SIGNATURE
CHARACTERISTICS

LETTER SIZE– The size of the letters in a

genuine signature will be almost the
same, but in the forged signature, the
size of letters won’t be accurate if it is
imitated by keeping the model in front to
copy. Even after practicing several times,
there will be a clear difference.
Standard Signature Questioned Signature
 GENUINE AND FORGED SIGNATURE
CHARACTERISTICS

LINE QUALITY– One of the most

important characteristics of a
genuine and forged signature. The
line quality of the genuine will be
smooth and continuous, while the
forged signature will contain tremors,
shakiness due to the nervousness
while forging.
Standard Signature Questioned Signature
 GENUINE AND FORGED SIGNATURE
CHARACTERISTICS

SPEED– If the questioned signature

speed is fast, the genuine signature
speed will be the same, but a forged
signature’s speed will be slow
because it takes time to imitate any
signature carefully.
Standard Signature Questioned Signature
 GENUINE AND FORGED SIGNATURE
CHARACTERISTICS

PEN PRESSURE– The pen

pressure of the forged signature
will always be more than the
genuine because of slow speed
and extra pressure to copy the
exact to prevent its detection.
Standard Signature Questioned Signature
 GENUINE AND FORGED SIGNATURE
CHARACTERISTICS

INDENTATION MARKS– If the forger is

trying to forge a signature by tracing the
original sign over the document either by
carbon tracing method, indentation
method, etc., there will be some
indentation marks over the document
where the forger is unable to ink it. The
genuine one will not have any such
marks.
Standard Signature Questioned Signature
 GENUINE AND FORGED SIGNATURE
CHARACTERISTICS

FLOURISHERS &
EMBELLISHMENTS– The forger, in a
hurry, sometimes forget to add some
embellishment or flourishers present
in the genuine one, which makes it
different from the forged signature. It
is a fancy loop, whorl or additional
strokes present in a signature.
Standard Signature Questioned Signature
 GENUINE AND FORGED SIGNATURE
CHARACTERISTICS
NATURAL VARIATIONS– No two signatures of
the same person will be the same. There will
be some minute variations that occur naturally
and are called natural variations. It is to prove
the genuineness and authenticity of a
signature. The forged signature will be exactly
as the forger can never bring out the variations
due to the absence of a clause which helps in
its detection as the genuine signatures will
never be exact.
Standard Signature Questioned Signature
 GENUINE AND FORGED SIGNATURE
CHARACTERISTICS

DIACRITIC PLACEMENT– Sometimes,
the forger forgets to add up the
strokes or dots as a diacritic in the
signature, put them up in the wrong
place or makes the difference in the
length or style. Still, everything is
accurate when observed in a genuine
signature. 
Standard Signature Questioned Signature
 CONCLUSION

It is concluded that the questioned signature is a

forged signature because it is examined and it
qualified the characteristics of a forged signature. The
forged signature contains tremors, shakiness due to
the nervousness while forging.