Freehand Forgery
Definition
Forgery produced without any model of the genuine signature. Easy to detect because total morphology mismatches the genuine.
- Method
- No model of genuine signature used
- Detectability
- High, morphology mismatches the genuine signature
- Related term
- Freehand simulation (studies the model, this does not)
- Field
- Signature and forgery examination
Common questions
Why is freehand forgery considered the easiest type of forgery to detect?+
Because the forger never referenced the genuine signature, the overall letter forms, proportions, and construction diverge from the genuine exemplars in ways an examiner can spot at a glance, unlike simulations or tracings that deliberately copy the target's shape.
How does freehand forgery differ from freehand simulation?+
Freehand forgery is written with no reference to the real signature at all, often because the forger does not know what it looks like. Freehand simulation is produced by studying and copying the genuine signature from memory or a viewed sample, so it shares overall shape but shows tremor and hesitation.
Related terms
- Anonymous Writing
- A document whose author is concealed by design, ranging from threat and ransom letters to poison-pen office mail. Authorship attribution combines handwriting...
- Block-Letter Conversion
- Switching from cursive to block capitals to suppress connecting-stroke habits. Spacing, proportion and i-dot habits often survive.
- Disguised Writing
- Writing in which the writer has deliberately altered their habitual features to prevent identification; commonly involves changed slant, block capitals, opposite hand,...
- Hand Change
- Writing with the non-dominant (usually left) hand. Produces awkward, angular, tremulous strokes with low fluency; the writer's habitual letter designs still surface...
- Lifted (Transferred) Forgery
- Genuine signature physically transferred from one document to another, classically by chemical lift, now by scanner-and-printer or photo-edit transplant onto a fabricated...
- Line Quality
- The overall fluency, rhythm and pressure variation of a stroke. Genuine writing has smooth, rhythmic, pressure-modulated lines; forgeries show tremor, blunt starts...
- Signature
- Psychologically expressive behaviours that go beyond what's needed to complete the offence: posing the body, ritual acts, taking trophies, leaving messages. Signature...
- Simulated Forgery
- Forgery drawn while looking at a genuine model. Shows slow execution, pen lifts, hesitation, tremor and patchwork retouching.
- Slant Change
- The commonest disguise: a right-handed writer with natural right slant deliberately writes with left or vertical slant. Holds for short stretches; idiosyncrasies...
- Traced Forgery
- Forgery produced by tracing over a genuine signature placed under thin paper or on a light box. Outline matches genuine too closely,...