What Erasure Means—The English Law—What a Fraudulent Alteration Means—Altered or Erased Parts Considered—Memoranda of Alterations Should Always Accompany Paper Changed—How Added Words Should be Treated—How to Erase Words and Lines Without Creating Suspicion—Writing Over an Erasure—How to Determine Whether or Not Erasures or Alterations Have Been Made—Additions and Interlineations—What to Apply to the Suspected Document—The Alcohol Test Absolute—How to Tell which of Crossing Ink Lines Were Made First—Ink and Pencil Alterations and Erasures—Treating Paper to Determine Erasures, Alterations and Additions—Appearance of Paper Treated as Directed—Paper That Does Not Reveal Tampering—How Removal of Characters From a Paper is Affected—Easy Means of Detecting Erasures—Washing with Chemical Reagents—Restoration of Original Marks—What Erasure on Paper Exhibits—Erasure in Parchments—Identifying Typewritten Matter—Immaterial Alterations—Altering Words in an Instrument—Alterations and Additions Are Immaterial When Interests of Parties Are Not Changed or Affected—Erasure of Words in an Instrument
| [CHAPTER V] | |
| HOW TO WRITE A CHECK TO PREVENT FORGING |
How a Paying Teller Determines the Amount of a Check—Written Amount and Amount in Figures Conflict—Depositor Protected by Paying Teller—Chief Concern of Drawer of a Check—Transposing Figures—Writing a Check That Cannot Be Raised—Writers who Are Easy Marks for Forgers—Safeguards for Those who Write Checks—An Example of Raised Checks—Payable "To Bearer" Is Always a Menace—Paying Teller and An Endorsement System Must Be Observed in Writing Checks—How a Check Must Be Written to Be Absolutely Safe—A Signature that Cannot Be Tampered with Without Detection—Paying Tellers Always Vigilant
| [CHAPTER VI] | |
| METHODS OF FORGERS, CHECK AND DRAFT RAISERS |
Professional Forgers and Their Methods—Using Engravers and Lithographers—Their Knowledge of Chemicals—Patching Perforated Paper—Difficult Matter to Detect Alterations and Forgeries—Selecting Men for the Work—The Middle Man, Presenter, and Shadow—Methods for Detecting Forgery—Detailed Explanation of How Forgers Work—Altering and Raising Checks and Drafts—A Favorite Trick of Forgers—Opening a Bank Account for a Blind—Private Marks on Checks no Safeguard—How a Genuine Signature Is Secured—Bankers Can Protect Themselves—A Forger the Most Dangerous Criminal—Bankers Should Scrutinize Signatures—Sending Photograph with Letter of Advice—How to Secure Protection Against Forgers—Manner in Which Many Banks Have Been Swindled—Points About Raising Checks and Drafts That Should Be Carefully Noted
| [CHAPTER VII] | |
| THE HANDWRITING EXPERT |
No Law Regulating Experience and Skill Necessary to Constitute an Expert—Expert Held Competent to Testify in Court—Bank Officials and Employees Favored—An Expert On Signatures—Methods Experts Employ to Identify the Work of the Pen—Where and When an Expert's Services Are Needed—Large Field and Growing Demand for Experts—Qualifications of a Handwriting Expert—How the Work is Done—A Good Expert Continously Employed—The Expert and the Charlatan—Qualifying as An Expert—A System Which Produces Results—Principal Tests Applied by Handwriting Experts to Determine Genuineness—Identification of Individual by His Handwriting—How to Tell Kind of Ink and Process Used to Forge a Writing—Rules Followed by Experts in Determining Cases—The Testimony of a Handwriting Expert—Explaining Methods Employed to Detect Forged Handwriting—The Courts and Experts—What an Expert May Testify to—Trapping a Witness—Proving Handwriting by Experts—General Laws Regulating Experts—The Basework of a Handwriting Expert—Important Facts an Expert Begins Examination With—A Few Words of Advice and Suggestion About "Pen Scope"—Detection of Forgery Easy—Rules Herewith Suggested Should Be Observed—Expert Witnesses, Courts, and Jurors
| [CHAPTER VIII] | |
| HOW TO DETECT FORGED HANDWRITING |
Frequency of Litigation Arising over Disputed Handwriting—Forged and Fictitious Claims Against the Estates of Deceased People—Forgery Certain to Be Detected When Subjected to Skilled Expert Examination—A Forger's Tracks Cannot Be Successfully Covered—With Modern Devices Fraudulent, Forged and Simulated Writing Can Be Determined Beyond the Possibility of a Mistake—Bank Officials and Disputed Handwriting—How to Test and Determine Genuine and Forged Signatures—Useful Information About Signature Writing—Guard Against an Illegible Signature—Avoid Gyrations, Whirls and Flourishes—Write Plain, Distinct and Legible—The Signature to Adopt—The People Forgers Pass By—How Many Imitate Successfully—How an Expert Detects Forged Handwriting—Examples of Signatures Forgers Desire to Imitate—Examining and Determining a Forgery—Comparisons of Disputed Handwriting—Microscopic Examinations a Great Help in Detecting Forged Handwriting—Comparison of Forged Handwriting
| [CHAPTER IX] | |
| GREATEST DANGER TO BANKS |