Instead of the signature being forged, the amount of a check, etc., may be altered.  This is done either by changing the letters and figures, or by the use of an erasive fluid.  The perfection with which the latter alteration can be performed is so complete that the most skilful eye cannot detect the imposture.  A person may deposit a hundred dollars with a house in New York, and obtain their draft for that amount on Philadelphia; he then alters the one hundred to one thousand by erasing a portion of the letters and figures and cashes the draft at a broker’s.  The latter recognizes the signature, and has no suspicion of the fraud until too late.

The means to secure entire protection against this is by using an ink which cannot be erased by chemicals, or at least such chemicals as are familiarly known to the class of criminals who make this a specialty.  Every well-regulated bank now uses a machine for punching or perforating a series of small holes in the check, so that any increase or decrease of the number of letters written is immediately detected.

Many banks have been swindled in the following manner:  A check, say for ten dollars, is obtained from a depositor of a bank, and a blank check exactly like the filled-in check is secured.  The two checks are laid one upon the other, so that the edges are exactly even.  Both checks are then torn irregularly across, and in such a way that the signature on the filled check appears on one piece and the amount and name of the payee on the other.  The checks having been held together while being torn, of course one piece of blank check will exactly fit the other piece of the filled check.  The swindler then fills in one piece of the blank check with the name of the payee and an amount to suit himself, takes it with the piece of the genuine check containing the signature to the bank, and explains that the check was accidently torn.  The teller can put the pieces together, and as they will fit exactly, the chances are that he will think that the pieces are parts of the same check, and becomes a victim of the swindle.  The trick, of course, suggests its own remedy.

It is a well-known fact that there are banks in the country that have paid thousands of dollars on raised checks, and decided that it was cheaper for them to pocket the loss than to have the facts become known.

The New York Court of Appeals holds that the maker of a check is obliged to use all due diligence in protecting it, and the omission to use the most effectual protection against alterations is regarded as an evidence of neglect.

Here are a few points about raising checks and drafts that should be carefully noted:  To successfully raise a check or draft requires so much less skill or art than to accomplish a forgery that it has of late become alarmingly prevalent.  Often where a check or draft is printed on ordinary paper the original figures are removed by some chemical process so skilfully that no alteration can be detected, even with a strong magnifying glass.