Modus Operandi by Mauro Corvasce (universal ebook reader txt) 📕

alterations on wearing apparel even though the alterations are included in the selling price.

6. A customer making purchases, leaving the store with the merchandise and then returning to make additional purchases may be using a stolen card.

7. Criminals are sometimes customers who do not appear to be well dressed but who are purchasing expensive items.

8. A customer who pulls the credit card out of his pocket, not his wallet should raise suspicion. This is a common technique that is not usually caught by younger salespeople. However, the older and more experienced a salesperson, the more this is a tip off that the card is actually stolen.

Other Documentation

Money orders, traveler's checks, store coupons, stock and bond certificates and letters of credit can all be duplicated. The method is again the theft of an original, which is then duplicated on a copy machine or a personal computer sys-tem. Fraudulent stock and bond certificates are often used to obtain credit or a loan from a bank.

Marketable Goods

You name it, they make it. Whether it is the latest CD, videotape, or computer software program, it is probably being pirated somewhere. This could be performed in a small operation or in a large factory, often in a foreign country. This process is profitable because no royalties are paid, the inferior merchandise used is cheap to manufacture, there is no middleman, and they pay no taxes.

Basically, the item, which could be anything from a sneaker to a watch, is examined by a manufacturer. The duplicate will look the same as the originals, but will be made of the cheapest possible materials.

Forgery

Forgery is the alteration of a written document with the intent to defraud a person by representing the document as genuine. The alteration could be signing a blank check or reproducing the original and representing it as the original.

Literary Forgery

Counterfeiting manuscripts and other printed materials is a profitable business. William H. V. Ireland, who was taught the engraving business by his father, reproduced several Shakespearean pieces of literature. Ireland even wrote an entire play attributing it to Shakespeare. Eventually, Ireland told the world and even demonstrated how he manufactured the writings, which included making the inks, paper and Shakespeare's signature.

Most recently, the magazine Stern, which is published in West Germany, reported having obtained a number of diaries written by Adolf Hitler. This hoax was discovered through scientific laboratory analysis of the materials present in the diary, and testing by a highly-trained handwriting expert. The contents of the diary contained misinformation that was easily refuted by historians.

The ever-increasing demand for autographs of the famous, such as movie stars, national heroes and sports figures, generates high price tags. Autograph forgers will, through both artistic skill and practice, duplicate the signatures of the famous. When the autograph is from earlier times, the inks and the writing utensils must match the time period. Failure to use authentic inks and tools is one of the main reasons that unskilled forgers meet their demise.

Electronic Forgery

Electronic forgery is becoming commonplace. Money can be fraudulently transferred among bank accounts using computers. This is accomplished either by a bank employee or over telephone lines via a personal computer and modem. Some computer experts, known as hackers, attempt to gain entry into business accounts through their technical abilities. These hackers can even shield themselves from apprehension by using a network of nontraceable telephone extensions. Credit card numbers can also be obtained using computers. Credit card agencies which perform audits also aid the criminal in his endeavors, as an unscrupulous auditor will sell card numbers.

Art Forgery

When someone creates a replica of a piece of art, and then sells it claiming it is the original, he is committing forgery. The art of the masters has been forged with such skill that even the copies have been mistaken for authentic pieces and sold as originals.

To forge art, the forger must be a skilled artist himself. If it is a painting that is going to be forged, the forger must study the style of painting including brushstrokes, the way paints are made, the colors used, and even the way the canvas is prepared. The forgery must then be aged. One method to age a painting is to place it in an oven. Another method is to drill small holes into wood art to give the appearance of worm holes. Some forgers will even acquire a canvas dating back to the original period and then create their forgery by scraping off the original painting and painting the forgery on top.

Today, forged art items, especially rare pieces dating back to the seventeenth and eighteenth century or earlier, are easy to detect. Before the advances of modern laboratory analysis, an expert would have to examine the artwork and give his opinion as to whether or not the article was genuine. Modern laboratory analysis uses microscopes, X-rays, infrared, ultraviolet and even chemical analysis to detect the forger's handiwork. With an X-ray, you can look under the first layer of paint to see if there were previous paintings underneath. The use of infrared can reveal a signature that has been painted over by a forger who changed the signature to that of a famous artist.

By removing very small pieces of the paint found on the painting and analyzing those fragments, we can determine whether the pigments used were available during the period when the painting would have been completed. Through radio-carbon dating, organic material such as the wood used to construct the frame or the sculpture itself, can be dated. Also any paper or inks used to create the artwork can easily be dated based on the material content and the methods used to manufacture them.

Other Collectibles

Antique furniture, mechanical banks, porcelain curios, children's toys, clothing or anything else there's a market for, people are willing to forge. These items are easily aged by exposing them to moisture, harsh chemicals, rough handling, or outside elements, just to name a few. These collectibles can then be sold for high profits at swap meets, antique shows and even garage sales.

Coins. Forging