Handwriting Analysis and Reflection on Check Forgery Activity

Free handing forgery is generally less accurate than trace forgery because when trying to imitate writing by hand and without a guide, you can unconsciously be adding your own personal style, shrinking or enlarging word size, increasing or decreasing the space between words, or possibly slanting your letters the wrong way. Free handing also takes more time in order to produce a convincing forgery since it’s harder to copy someone else’s writing exactly just by looking at it although I find it to be easier than trace forgery only because I’m a drawer and can pinpoint styles and differences in technique rather quickly.

Free-hand forgery simulation

Trace forgery is much more believable than free hand forgery since the forger has a perfect guide on which to create their letters. By placing an original document under a document intended to be forged, the writing style, letter spacing, and letter formation are more clearly visible. This lowers the time taken to forge the words because the forger can simply follow the curves and breaks in the original document. The real issue to tackle with any forgery is pen pressure seeing as how even by tracing you may not apply the same pressure to an area of writing as the person whose handwriting you’re forging.

Trace forgery simulation

In our group activity, it was easy to tell a fake from an original because of simple mistakes or careless errors made by the forger such as writing to large, not adding flourishes in the correct areas, or continuously writing too dark or light. Through analytical analysis, we were able to characterize the writing of each of our classmates using the twelve handwriting characteristics.



Fraud





Original



Twelve Handwriting Characteristics

 Handwriting can be distinguished in a number of ways. These traits are used to identifyhandwriting and expose forgeries.

1) Line quality: do the letters flow or are they written with very intent strokes?

2) Spacing of words and letters: What is the average space between words and letters?

3) Ratio of height, width, and size of letters: Are the letters consistent in height, width,  and size?

4) Lifting pen: Does the author lift his or her pen to stop writing a word and star a new word?

5) Connecting strokes: How are capital letters connected to lower-case letters?

6) Strokes to begin and end: Where does the letter begin and end on a page?

7) Unusual letter formation: Are any letters written with unusual slants or angles?

8) Pen pressure: How much pen pressure is applied on upward and downward strokes?

9) Slant: Do the letters slant to the left or to the right? If slant is pronounced, a protractor may be used to determine degree.

10) Baseline habits: Does the author write on the line or does the writing go above or below the line?

11) Fancy writing habits: Are there any unusual curls, loops, or unique styles?

12) Placement of diacritics: How does the author dot i’s or cross t’s?

Reflection on Check Forgery Activity

As a class, we participated in a check forgery activity in which we wrote a check out to any place for any amount then signed a fake name. Before tearing the check into pieces, we had the whole thing completed in original handwriting. We ripped up the check in order to for our teacher to give the fragments to another group that would attempt to reassemble the check and use analytical methods to note characteristics of the handwriting that would expose the writer of the check.

When our group received five checks, we each took one and left the other to be worked on as a group. After reconstructing our checks, we made notes on the writing style that make the check unique. This helped us to correctly identify each check’s owner without any clues other than handwriting techniques.

Within the checks our group analyzed, letter spacing, fancy writing habits, and slant degree were the most distinguished characteristics. The check I viewed had significant amounts of fancy curls on letters such as y’s, g’s, and j’s. In addition, the check possessed a high slant angle to the right which told me the person was more than likely going to be right handed.  When I noted the letter spacing to be excessively large, I was able to infer the handwriting belonged to a boy since girls tend to write small and compact. These observations led me to conclude the person responsible for the check forgery.