Check Washing
Definition
A cheque alteration technique in which organic solvents dissolve the original ink entries while leaving the pre-printed bank security printing intact, allowing the fraudster to rewrite new payee name or amount.
- Target
- Payee name and/or amount fields
- Method
- Organic solvents (acetone, bleach, alcohol-based removers)
- What survives
- Pre-printed bank security background
- Detection
- VSC, IR luminescence, ESDA, solvent-halo fluorescence
Common questions
Why does check washing leave the bank's security printing untouched?+
Security printing inks are formulated to resist common solvents and often use pigments rather than dyes, while everyday ballpoint or gel-pen ink used to fill in the payee and amount is far more soluble, so a solvent bath removes the handwriting while the printed background survives.
What physical evidence distinguishes a washed cheque from a genuinely blank one?+
Washing typically leaves a faint solvent halo, altered paper sizing or gloss at the treated area, and residual ink fluorescence under alternate light or IR that would not be present on an untouched cheque, even after the visible ink is gone.
Related terms
- CTS-2010 (Cheque Truncation System)
- RBI's standard for cheque security features in India, requiring watermark, void pantograph, UV-reactive printing, and MICR E-13B encoding; cheques not meeting CTS-2010...
- Digital Signature Certificate (DSC)
- A cryptographic certificate issued by a Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA)-licensed CA in India (or equivalent trust-service provider under eIDAS in the...
- Embossed Seal Counter-Matrix
- The female die component of an embossing seal press, whose surface marks and imperfections transfer as positive elements in the paper impression...
- Error Level Analysis (ELA)
- A technique that re-compresses a JPEG at a controlled quality setting and maps the pixel-level difference between the re-compressed and original images....
- ESDA (Electrostatic Detection Apparatus)
- A non-destructive technique for detecting indented impressions on paper caused by writing pressure. A physical ink signature on paper produces detectable ESDA...
- MICR E-13B
- The Magnetic Ink Character Recognition font standardised by the American Bankers Association and adopted by the RBI for CTS-2010; uses iron-oxide magnetic...
- Rubber Die Defect Inventory
- A catalogue of individualising defects (nicks, cracks, compressed elements, border degradation) on a specific rubber stamp's die face, used to associate questioned...
- Void Pantograph
- A fine-line background print pattern on a cheque or secure document that reveals the word 'VOID' when photocopied or scanned, due to...
- VSC (Video Spectral Comparator)
- A multispectral imaging instrument used in document examination; illuminates the document at multiple wavelengths (UV, visible, near-IR, IR) and captures fluorescence and...