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Signature Authentication/Forgery defrauder

Greetings. My name is Kelly Wilkins. I am a forensic document examiner/handwriting analyst/expert and an avid collector of autographs, myself. But, I go to horror movie conventions to meet my "heroes", and it dawned on me. Now that I am certified, why not use this for my benefit. I have met with managers and the actors themselves as well as other avid collectors and have started to add signature authentication to my services. Now, this is why I am contacting you. Since this is a subject very near and dear to my heart both professionally and personally, I am reaching out to other autograph collectors of the world letting you know that you can contact me if you have a questioned signature or signatures you need authenticated.My office number is 281-417-8801 and my email address is kelly@houstondocumentexaminer.com I would love to talk to someone who runs this website/magazine and setup a 'deal'.

Anyway, this past year at my favorite horror movie convention, Texas Frightmare Weekend, I was in line for Angus Scrimm (The Tallman from Phantasm), and I caught something that will forever make me think this is something I am meant to be doing. While in line, someone was trying to sell Kim Henkel's autograph. Well, knowing that Kim Henkel doesn't go to conventions, like to be around large groups of people, and rarely signs anything, I asked to take a look at it. Being a Forensic Document Examiner, I looked with great scrutiny. Things didn't add up, so, I asked my office to fax me a copy of the signed dvd cover I have of the 1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I didn't let the offender know what I was up to, but when I got the txt message that I received a new fax, I compared. First off the bat, the size, the slant, and furthermore, the name was clearly spelled out. I then pulled out my card, told the gentleman that he was busted. The cops that were there came after the man started making a scene. I gave the cops my ID, my card, and told them what I did for a living, and that the gentleman was selling forged signatures. The offender was adamant that he was selling rare pieces. The police searched his bag and found a receipt with his name signed. I compared the signature and matched the handwriting on the forged content to his own and his wife's signatures. They were arrested on the spot. In his bag, he had 114 forged signatures he was selling off.

Anyway, I hate to hear that people do this. I am glad that I can do my part to help end this. I know good people spend a great sum of money, and if I can do my part to make sure they're getting what they paid for, then, I am doing my part in the world.
Thanks

Kelly Wilkins, FDE

Tags: analysis, document, examination, forensic, forgery, handwriting

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Comment by Steve Zarelli on July 5, 2011 at 1:16pm: The ballpoint is pretty easy... much easier than I thought. (At least I think it is) :-)

3 - x-first

4 - o first

8 - x first

9 - x first

The marker is much tougher than anticipated. But, I think it would be easier on a glossy photo because it shows streaks and the ink sits on the surface as opposed to "sinking in."

Comment by sling on July 5, 2011 at 2:47pm: A note regarding comments on scans! The reader should be aware that the digital eye is hundreds of time in magnitude better than ther human eye in comparing handwriting--however proper software is needed. A good quality home scanner has sufficient digital copying resolution to analyze handwriting if the proper software is used.

The human eye cannot see proper resolution beyond 300x magnification. The digital eye can, with the right software, see a million times magnification. And the software also allows a highly sophisticated, multiple type handwriting comparison to valid exemplars.

Digital scans are often considered not that useful, but in fact can be much better than the human eye used properly. Word.

Comment by sling on July 5, 2011 at 3:05pm: One note re digital eye comment- software allows the HUMAN eye to see above its natural limit of 300x to in excess of a million times magnification.

Also, if there is an optical way of telling which lines of the circles and x's examples, the digital eye will spot it faster and better than human eye.

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on July 5, 2011 at 3:14pm: Pet, what software do you recommend?

Comment by sling on July 5, 2011 at 5:07pm: Historically, this software has not come cheap- but affordable by labs and gov,t agencies. However, now there are several universities working in this area and I think are offering open source software in this area. Just do a search of such Univ programs and you should find some quickly.

Comment by sling on July 5, 2011 at 5:21pm: One note regardingh digital eye. The software applications may be specific to handwritting analysis subject, or the softfware may be derived out of shape analysis for things such as bacteria shapes. In both cases, the resulting computer generated results should always be read by a human and finalized by a human. Certainly this data should wiegh heavy in the human's judgement, but the human may also know of other info that may supercede all other data. That other data being absent, then the computer results are generally the best you can have given you have authentic exemplars in the digital database-

just scan!

Comment by sling on July 6, 2011 at 6:22am: Stereoscopic scanners have primarily been used to create the ILLUSION of 3d in 2d objects. they aren't great for coparison, such as signatures, for various reasons including the fact that they only compare to ONE other object or signature in this case.

If you are comaring to 20 OTHER exemplars, then your statistical reliablility is much greater than one exemplar (1/square root of N where N is the sample size is one way to calculate margins of error)