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To: dickmc

Is there a way to tell if a signature was pasted into a document even if you don't have the original into which the pasting was done? (By "pasting" I mean either that a photocopy of a signature was inserted into another document manually using scissors and paste/tape or a digitized signature was inserted.)

I would think that if the CBS copy was, for example, a second photocopy of the paper that had the signature pasted into it, that converting the document into an image file, say BMP (less distortion introducing compression than JPG or GIF), and turning up the contrast would eventually show a rectangular or similar shape box around the signature.

On the other hand, if it's the tenth photocopy of the paste job it would be more difficult, maybe impossible, to find such a telltale rectangular or similar shape box around the signature by enhancing contrast.

Also, if someone copied a signature onto a transparency or created a digital file with a transparent background, this "enhance the contrast" approach is unlikely to work.

Maybe the forger was sloppy on at least some of the photocopied signatures?


41 posted on 09/11/2004 6:14:01 PM PDT by BillF (Fight terrorists in Iraq & elsewhere, instead of waiting for them to come to America!)
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To: BillF
Even third or fourth generation copy will have lost all the subtle clues to pasting, etc. CBS's own expert says you can't authenticate photocopies. (But then he went ahead.)
45 posted on 09/11/2004 6:18:27 PM PDT by VadeRetro
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