Crime

Forgery

Forgery is the act of creating an imitation of a written document or product while claiming it to be genuine. A form of fraud, forgery involves a counterfeit item.

Examples of Forgery

Forgery comes in many forms. Some of the more common instances are:

Attempting to reproduce the signature of another person. This is often done with checks, credit card receipts or important legal documents. This type of forgery attempts to cheat a person out of some form of compensation for the financial gain of the forger.

Reproducing an item of value with the intent of passing it off as the real thing. This may include anything from counterfeit money to paintings that are created to look exactly like a famous original. For these acts to be considered Forgery, the person who produces the items must do so with intent to make a profit off the item by convincing others that the copies are actually the genuine articles.

Famous Forgeries

Over the years, many Forgery cases have been highly recognized as major criminal cases. These crimes encompass several categories.

Piltdown Man

This was an archaeological hoax in which fake remains were planted within a gravel pit in a village in England called Piltdown. The remains were discovered in 1912, and considered to be a major find from an ancient human. However, in 1953 scientists discovered that the fossils were actually a forgery.

Elmyr de Hory

Elmyr de Hory was among the most famous art forgers of all times. He is reputed to have sold at least one thousand replicated paintings to art galleries internationally. His career as a forger became even more notorious after he was made the subject of a book called F for Fake, written by Clifford Irving, which was also turned into a documentary film.

The Salamander Letter

This was supposedly an account of Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The letter seemed to contradict much of what was previously written about Joseph Smith's reported finding of the golden plates, which were the source of the Book of Mormom. In this version, a Salamander appeared to Smith and spoke to him in the form of a spirit. This letter was widely discussed and debated, but eventually found to be the forged work of Mark Hofmann.

The art of forgery continues to be practiced by criminals who seek to gain profit through the creation of fake documents or other items. Forgery poses the biggest threat to the public when identity theft from forged signatures is involved.