, and compare any suspicious
signature with the genuine one.

In consequence of the numerous frauds committed by forged checks, some
of the European bankers have adopted the custom of sending with their
letter of advice a photograph of the person in whose favor the credit
has been issued, and to stop the payment when the person who presents
himself at the bank does not resemble the picture. If this practice
were to become universal, the object of preventing frauds could be
well attained.

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
exact