A master forger created a flawless fake document, but ruined it by accidentally referring to 'his late majesty' two years before the emperor died.
This chapter from Hans Gross's 19th-century forensic handbook delves into the investigation of fraud, focusing on document forgery. It explains the technical knowledge required of investigators and illustrates principles with historical case studies of famous forgeries and the subtle errors that led to their detection.

As heard by us

Dates, stamps, and spelling can expose a forgery.

This chapter draws a sharp line between civil and criminal fraud, and it keeps returning to the same practical point: the investigator has to understand the technical side as well as the facts.

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Why you'd press play

You can lose a fraud to a date, a stamp, or one embarrassing typo.

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