CHAPTER III

HOW FORGERS REPRODUCE SIGNATURES

Characteristics Appearing in Forged Signatures--Conclusions Reached by Careful Examinations--Signatures Written with Little Effort to Imitate--What a Clever Forger Can Do--Most Common Forgeries of Signatures--Reproducing a Signature over a Plate of Glass--A Window Frame Scheme for Reproducing Signatures--How the Paper is Held and the Ink Applied--How a Genuine Signature is Placed and Used--A Forger's Process of Tracing a Signature--How to Detect Earmarks of Fraud in a Reproduced Signature--Prominent Features of Signatures Reproduced--Method Resorted to by Novices in Forging Signatures--Conditions Appearing in All Traced Signatures--Reproduction of Signatures Adopted by Expert Forgers--Making a Lead-Pencil Copy of a Signature--Erasing Pencil Signatures Always Discoverable by the Aid of a Microscope--Appearances and Conditions in Traced Signatures--How to Tell a Traced Signature--All the Details Employed to Reproduce a Signature Given--Features in Which Forgers are Careless--Handling of the Pen Often Leads to Detection--A Noted Characteristic of Reproduced Signatures--Want of Proportion in Writing Names Should Be Studied--Rules to Be Followed in Examining Signatures--System Employed by Experts in Studying Proof of Reproduced Signatures--Bankers and Business Men Should Avoid Careless Signatures