CHALLENGES IN FORENSIC DETECTION OF FORGERY BY DISAPPEARING INK

Abstract

Common People have used ink and paper for making notes for a long time. Due to public trust on permanency and authenticity of records written in ink, handwritten entries on different types of printed banking instruments has enjoyed confidence of both banks and customers for a long time. But, ink writings could be manipulated to achieve intentions of fraudsters without knowledge of the writer. Fraudsters first erase the ink writing by different methods and cover the area with new writings. Common methods to erase writings are physical and chemical erasures. In the cases where physical erasures are done, either traces of ink left on the paper or the signs of abrasion on the paper attracts the attention of examiner. Chemical erasures mostly lead to change in tint of the surface in the affected area. Both chemical and physical erasure leads to loss of micro printing done as a security feature in the area. Recently, we came across a case where earlier writings were changed without any easily detectable changes in normal light. Market survey reveals that disappearing ink pens are commercially available which can disappear after writing on paper in matter of hours. Since no physical abrasion is required or chemicals were used to erase the same, no tell tale signs of either kind of erasure is readily detected. This paper discusses how one such case could be detected and suggests directions to design a module so that these types of cases do not go undetected.