Changing career...forgery investigation

[DilemmaADay]

Hello, sorry just posting for traffic. I need a bit of advise here, please. I'm thinking of changing my career path and would love to go into something which involves looking into fraudulent documents and detecting forgeries, however I can't seem to find anything related to that online! I closest I can find is forensics but this seems to be more DNA/science based.

When I search the profession, it comes up with a lot of USA based articles/jobs and I'm UK based. Surely a role must exist in the UK for this niche.

If anyone could help that would be great. English isnt my first language so I may have not worded this right in google searches.

Forensic accountant type stuff?

I think it depends on the document.
It’s very specialised, so a forensic linguist for example would do very different work from someone involved in authenticating paintings and drawings . Can you be more specific?

Forensic account would be fraud not forgery I think.

I too would think it would depend on the document. Surely they would all have their own type of experts, and you become an expert by working in that area for years?

Do you mean with Police or with something like insurance companies?

Can I ask how did you arrive to this particular career? It's not something what usually pops up in people's minds

We sometimes use these services in my work. They’re usually called Forensic Document Investigators or sometimes just handwriting experts (even though they usually do more than just look at handwriting).

Here’s an article on how to become one: work.chron.com/become-handwriting-expert-15904.html

Boarder Force? Probably not the right time in the current situation however, it can be a very interesting vocation.

Forensic accountancy is more to do with examining accounts than documents. I’m a solicitor, and we use forensic accountants when we want to challenge a loss of profit claim, for example.

I came about it because I have two day jobs, one is an investigative style role which has always interested me, but it's more people based than documents.

Rather than fraud or financial investigation which is more working out how the forgery came about, I'd like to be the person detecting the documents

Yes I think to get into any speciality of detecting forgeries you have to be an expert in your field first. What are the American courses which seem to fit the bill for you?

Ahh you want a job in SpecOps, SO-27 LiteraTec division.

@DilemmaADay how fascinating, would love to know what is your day job 're investigation of people? Are you a private eye?

Are you just interested in paper documents? Digital forensics is only going to grow as more documents go digital and forged paper documents will become ever more niche. As someone said earlier, Border Force (false passports) is probably the obvious possibilty to look into.

National Document Fraud Unit are a Home Office department based at one of the airports, Heathrow I think. They do analysis of documents being used by travellers, but also during immigration cases. They have delivered some training to us at work which was great and really interesting. Looking at watermarks, UV detection, using magnifiers to see that some of the decoration/images in a British passport are actually made up of lots of little numbers, looking at how the colours gradually transition on ID cards rather than being a hard stop between red and blue.....

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachmentdata/file/869551/Guidanceeonexamininggidentitydocumentssv.Februaryy2020.pdf.pdf

I'd be interested in both, User :)

@TorysSuckRevokeArticle50 I had the same training a while ago!! That helped spark my interest I think, and I am sure they are based in Heathrow...unfortunately that's very far from me as I'm up north

@SilveryWrath definitely not private eye, much more boring and admin related

Worth checking civil service job page. Not sure how 'up north' you are but there's a big Home Office HQ in Sheffield and another in Liverpoool.

@TorysSuckRevokeArticle50 brilliant, both accessible locations for me I'll have a look :)

Is it something like this you are after? www.eurofins.co.uk/digital-forensics/questioned-documents/

Eurofins have offices in the North I believe, but not sure where they do docs. Worth looking at police and other forensic companies for similar roles.

NHS has anti fraud departments in most healthboards.

@Lovestonap sorry! Wasnt ignoring you. Something like this
www.crimesceneinvestigatoredu.org/forensic-document-examiner/

Thanks @MorgenMuffel and @Msmcc1212 I'll check those out now!

How about working for an LA checking fraudulent school applications?

@TeenPlusTwenties I'll look at that too! :)

I used to work with someone who had worked for UK border force (home office) as a specialist in forged documents. Proper examining with the eyeglass etc stuff. In-house training given too.

DWP fraud department too, they do something similar.

fraud analysis? i believe that a banking type job, attached to their it team??