FIGHTING FORGERS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 1 October 1924, Page 2

FIGHTING FORGERS.

SIMPLEi SIGNATURES BEST FOR CHEQUES.

The extreme difficulty of detecting a forged cheque, and the responsibility involved in the declaration of the forgery are not apparent to most people, writes a bank manager in the Daily Express. It is a curious fact that those ing who adopt peculiar signatures, acby quaint flourishes, in the hope of minimising the risk °f forgery, defeat their own ends because of the comparative ease with, which a skilled forger can imitate such originals. The plain, straightforward signature, deyoid of unnecesasry flourishes or additions, is the hardest to forge; any slight deviation from the usual script springs to the eye at once.

Where flourishes and ornaments exist, the forger concentrates on making an exact copy, of these, knowing that the cashier looks to them for identification purposes, because every signature is bound to vary slightly from its fellows. Forgers, like most lawbreakers, usually betray themselves by a careless slip, after expending the whole of their energies upon the actual name. • Only a few days ago a, forged /cheque was detected, not on account of the signature, but because the word “forty’’ in the body of the cheque was spelt correct ly, while the customer whose signature the cheque purported to bear invariably wrote “fourty.” If, in spite of all precautions, you are defrauded, the bank probably will have to “pay the piper.”