Forgery Defined

Forgery, a crime in which a person falsifies something with the intent to deceive others, is one of the fastest-growing white collar crimes. Such falsification can include making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents while intending to deceive the recipients of such materials. Forgery is similar to fraud, which is simply the crime of deceiving someone. Forgery is prosecutable when any form or property or substantial amounts of money are involved, and the Modern Penal Code (MPC) states that someone is guilty of forgery if:

• “An actor or person alters any writing of any person;
• [He or she] makes, completes, executes, authenticates, issues, or transfers any writing so that it purports to be an act of another who did not authorize the act or to have been at the time or place or in a numbered sequence other than was in fact the case, or to be a copy of an original when no such original existed; or
• [He or she] utters any writing which [he or she] knows to be forged” (MPC sec. 224.1).

In addition, some of the main types of forgery are altered documents, signature forgery, and false documents.

Altered Documents

Documents are one of the easiest things to alter, as the forger can do so by simply changing certain information in the document to benefit him- or herself. To do this, the forger can use household bleach, paint thinner, or other special ink eradicators on a check and change the payee or amount of money fairly easily. Such modifications are often undetectable.

Signature Forgery

Signature forgery is one of the easiest methods of forgery, since the forger just needs to obtain a document for another person and sign that person's name on it. Even if detected, it can be incredibly difficult to track down the forger.

False Documents

Because of the availability of inexpensive computers, scanners, and printers, false documents are very easy to create. One popular way of doing this is to scan a business card and create a check, even if it looks nothing like the real checks for the business. Printing and cashing these checks enables forgers to steal a great deal of money.

A few examples of these three types of forgery are:

• Counterfeiting: the act of making fake currency or falsely signing checks or other financial documents.
• Art forgery: making a piece of art meant to mimic the style of a famous artist and signing the art with the name of the famous artist.
• Document forgery: generating identifications, certificates of title to property, or falsely creating other official documents.

As one of the most quickly growing white collar crimes, forgery is a major issue of concern for both individuals and corporations. While many official documents use special paper and ink to reduce the risk of forgery, such measures are not fool-proof and it is important to take special care when dealing with important financial or official documents.