The purpose of this survey was to discover the perception of signature forgeries from the general public. We constructed a survey to gain insight on the ideas and opinions of the basics of signature forgery. The survey consisted of a series of questions that we believe would interest participants and give them the perspective of a signature forger. This survey contained several signatures, then asked if they would feel comfortable forging them. Additional information was given on some signatures and then they were asked if this would further help in forging the signatures.

1. THE PERCEPTION OF SIGNATURE FORGERIES
Alex Morton, William Reid, Colin Buntin, Michael Brockly, Stephen Elliott
Overview
Survey Results
Intricate Signatures Easy Signatures
Conclusions
The purpose of this survey was to discover the perception of signature forgeries from the general public. We constructed a
survey to gain insight on the ideas and opinions of the basics of signature forgery. The survey consisted of a series of
questions that we believe would interest participants and give them the perspective of a signature forger. This survey
contained several signatures, then asked if they would feel comfortable forging them. Additional information was given on
some signatures and then they were asked if this would further help in forging the signatures.
Demographics
Have You Ever
Forged a
Signature
Before?
• 66% reported to forging a
signature before
• 85% said that they use minimal
effort for “day to day”
signatures
• 1 out of every 3 people know
that their signature has been
forged before
Our survey showed that participants believed that they could forge about 50% of all signatures presented to them.
Combined with pen-up information they believed that they could create an even more successful forgery.
Research in this field could be expanded towards signature forgery comparisons, where participants would try to
replicate signatures and would then be compared to the original signatures. This research shows the relationship
between confidence and actual performance in forging signatures.
Pen-up Information:
We gave participants additional information on how many
times the writer would pick up their pens.
The results showed that this information would help in the
forging process.
Additionally this would increase the confidence for forgers and
would increase their success rate of forgery.
“Unrecognizable
characters with high
arches and small spacing
makes the reproduction
difficult.”
“The unrecognizable and
almost overrunning
characters make
reproduction almost futile
to even attempt.”
“Its easy to read, short,
and not complicated”
“Few Characters and
openly spaced”
“Despite
unrecognizable
characters, the
simplicity of the
signature makes
reproduction easier.”
“Two recognizable
characters, one small
looping, and then a lightly
waved line. Relatively
simple to reproduce.”
“A structured name with
unrecognizable characters,
a bit of looping, and a
stylized ending to the
name.”
Do you
think you
would be
efficient
at
forging?