The scenario
A certificate, bank statement or official letter is submitted in support of a claim, and something about it does not sit right. The document opens normally, prints normally, and looks correct. The question is whether the figure, the date or the name on it is the one that was originally there.
Why it is difficult
A convincing forgery looks like a document
Visual examination catches crude work. It does not catch a number changed in an editor and re-saved, which is the overwhelming majority of what is actually submitted.
Editing is not the same as forgery
Documents are legitimately modified constantly — signed, stamped, form-filled, redacted. A tool that flags every modification produces noise that trained examiners learn to ignore, which is worse than no tool.
The original is usually gone
What arrives is a copy of a copy, often a scan or an export, with the provenance stripped somewhere along the way.
How Exiphore approaches it
Read the revision history the file keeps about itself
Documents commonly retain earlier states internally after an edit. Where that history survives, it can show what the document said before it was changed — which is considerably stronger than an inference that something looks wrong.
Check what a signature actually covers
A digital signature that does not span the whole file is a signature over an earlier version, with content appended after signing. That distinction is invisible in a viewer and decisive in an examination.
Distinguish alteration from ordinary editing
Structural findings are reported alongside the innocent explanations that produce the same trace, so an examiner adjudicates rather than reacting to a flag.
Examine embedded imagery too
Scanned and image-rendered documents are examined as images, so a pasted signature block or substituted photograph is assessed on its own terms.
What this will not settle
- Structural analysis establishes that a document changed, not that its content is false. A perfectly-formed document can state a complete fabrication.
- A forger who rewrites and flattens the file removes the revision history. A clean structure is not evidence of authenticity.
- Coverage is currently PDF. Other office formats are not yet examined structurally.
Bring us an exhibit you already know the answer to
The most useful demonstration is on your own material, from a closed case where the ground truth is settled.
Request a demoRelated use cases
Evidentiary review and disclosure
Before an exhibit is tendered, establish what can and cannot be said about it — measurements, limitations, custody and signed reasoning as one sealed record.
Impersonation and payment fraud
A cloned executive authorises a transfer. A familiar voice calls a relative in distress. Examine the recording and preserve the source chain while it is still recoverable.