Signature Forging in Contracts: How to Prevent It with eSignatures

In business contracts and legal agreements, signature forging has become a severe concern for many organizations. Signature forgery is creating or replicating someone’s signature without their permission or authorization, intending to deceive others into believing it is genuine. Understanding signature forgery will help you protect yourself and your documents from fraud.

This blog presents the susceptibilities that lead to signature forgery, threats to businesses, and security measures and best practices to prevent signature forgery.

The Vulnerabilities Exploited by Signature Forgers are:

• Poor storage and handling of physical documents.
• Lack of authentication to access documents and signatures.
• Digital documents that are prone to hacking.
• Poor signatures verification methods to verify the authenticity of signatures.
• Lack of awareness about the practices and risks of forgery.
• Inadequate security measures in document handling.

Threats of Signature Forgery to Businesses

Signature forgery poses significant threats to businesses, including:

• Organizations can suffer significant financial losses from check forgery, fraudulent contracts, and unauthorized transactions involving forged signatures.
• Signature forgery can damage an organization’s reputation, spoil customer trust, and discourage potential clients or partners.
• Companies have to face legal actions, heavy fines, or regulatory penalties if they fail to avert signature forgery.
• Handling signature forgery can be time-consuming and disruptive to business operations, distracting resources from key activities.
• Forging signatures on intellectual property-related documents can lead to the theft or unauthorized use of valuable assets.

The Strategies to Prevent Signature Fraud

Maintain a Signers List:

An approved signatory list should be maintained to provide access only to authorized users.

Develop a Signature Policy:

An official signature policy should be in place for users to follow. The policy should also outline anti-fraud control and compliance measures.

Use Modern Security Methods:

Utilize biometric verification, multi-factor authentication, and optical character recognition (OCR) to ensure that only authorized persons can access and sign documents.

Regular Auditing:

Perform regular audits of financial records and contracts to detect any irregularities or doubtful activity.

Implement Advanced eSignature Software:

Use a highly secure eSignature platform with robust authentication methods to prevent fraudulent activities.

Using eSignature Software to Prevent Signature Forgeries

Advanced solutions such as eSign software prevent signature forgery, provide modern authentication methods, improve document integrity, and avoid fraudulent activities.

Streamlined Verification Process

eSignature software streamlines the verification process and minimizes the risk of fraudulent transactions. It enables automated verification processes, eliminating the need for manual checks. This eliminates human error and accelerates the verification process, ensuring quick and accurate validation of signed documents.

Biometric Signature Verification

Biometric authentication provides a high level of security by evaluating unique traits like fingerprints or handwriting patterns to verify a signer’s identity and signature validity. This method ensures that only authorized people can sign a document, preventing potential forgeries and protecting against unauthorized access.

The advanced solution helps verify signatories before giving them access to documents. Users have to confirm their identity through two-factor authentication. It enables you to find genuine signatories and pinpoint fraud.

Cryptographic Algorithms

eSignature solution uses encryption and cryptographic algorithms to secure eSigned documents, ensuring their integrity, legitimacy, and non-repudiation. These techniques create a digital fingerprint of the document, making any modifications visible, thus improving trust and confidence in digital transactions.

Data Integrity

The online solution ensures the integrity of the transaction data. Any change in the agreement/contract document after applying a digital signature will invalidate the signature during verification. This tamper-evident feature protects against unofficial modifications and ensures the integrity of the transactions.

Audit Log

The software tracks every change that has occurred in the document. The audit log includes details such as signer’s IP address, signature timestamp, and email address. The log provides a transparent and legally verifiable record of all actions and interactions related to the document, ensuring accountability and compliance with regulatory requirements.

Custom Workflows

The online solution allows you to configure simple and advanced document workflows. You can set automation rules for sending documents to the various signers in sequential or parallel order. You can also set triggers that automatically send a copy of the signed document to specific email addresses upon completion.

Conclusion

In the modern business world, the chances of signature forgery are high. Advanced technologies that act as vigilant guardians eliminate the risks of signature forgery. Implementing a modern eSignature software solution with robust access control and authentication features helps prevent fraud in business contracts and legal agreements.