herbivore
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Dissappearing ink on a check?
While thinking of a plotline for my fanboy spec script, I postulated the following:
Dissappearing ink on a check is stupid. They have your check (duh) so you are fingering yourself from square one.
How about if the bad-guy were to treat the check (or other paper document) with a compound that caused it to rapidly disentigrate to powder when
exposed to air. The evil-doer could keep it in a ziplock with N2 or CO2 to prevent premature self-destruction.
Or, instead of disentigration it could just go totaly black. Much like a thermal receipt does, if stored improperly.
Or, a slow disappearing ink could be placed into an empty inkjet cartridge and then whatever info the dirtbag wanted 'printed' onto the check could be
(incl. MICR codes) - stored in ziplock then used to make purchases... then the entire check goes blank...
Along these lines... if perp needs to put thermaly changing ink onto a document he is forging (like a perscription or government document) the ink
could be aquired online easily and then placed into an empty inkjet cartridge. You can then print whateveryou want in thermographic ink without
buyin a special printer!
[Edited on 30-12-2010 by herbivore]
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Sedit
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I remember a story someone told me a while back so I can't validate the truth in it but the story says that back in the 70's IIRC there was a man
going around writting checks out and cashing them only to have placed a substance on them that would cause it to burst into flames sometime after. All
the checks at the time would be placed in a stack and put into the system at the end of the day but by then the entire stack would have caught fire
eliminating any record of this fellow cashing a check.
Knowledge is useless to useless people...
"I see a lot of patterns in our behavior as a nation that parallel a lot of other historical processes. The fall of Rome, the fall of Germany — the
fall of the ruling country, the people who think they can do whatever they want without anybody else's consent. I've seen this story
before."~Maynard James Keenan
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bbartlog
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Pretty sure this has been done. Can't find a definitive reference on the internet, but Google Books turns up a hit on
Encyclopedia of World Crime: D-J (Jay Robert Nash 1990)
p978
'Disintegrating Checks, case of': prom 1988 US fraud...'
...and then leaves off as it shows only a snippet view :-(. Nonetheless I also have vague recollections of hearing about the case in the news, which
is why I went googling.
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herbivore
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Quote: Originally posted by bbartlog  | Pretty sure this has been done. Can't find a definitive reference on the internet, but Google Books turns up a hit on
Encyclopedia of World Crime: D-J (Jay Robert Nash 1990)
p978
'Disintegrating Checks, case of': prom 1988 US fraud...'
...and then leaves off as it shows only a snippet view :-(. Nonetheless I also have vague recollections of hearing about the case in the news, which
is why I went googling.
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>pasted article follows
NEW YORK TIMES: Follow-Up on the News; New Bank Fraud: Vanishing Checks, Published: November 06, 1988
BANKS have learned, as professional doubters of human nature, to keep an eye out for altered checks, bounced checks, kited checks and stolen checks.
But checks that self-destruct?
The Chicago Clearinghouse Association warned its 142 member banks in March that there was indeed such questionable financial paper in circulation. The
checks, the Chicago police said, were treated with a chemical, and before the banks could clear them - poof! - they disintegrated into confetti,
making it a bit awkward to debit an account or piece together evidence.
In the typical fraud, the police said, the check writer would open a small account at a bank and later make a larger deposit with a dissolving check.
The money would be withdrawn before the bank learned that the second check was bogus.
The case of the vanishing checks is nearing a climax, with about a dozen suspects identified, reports Detective Gregory Danz, who has been
investigating for the Chicago police.
''I can't tell you their names,'' he says. ''There's a grand jury investigation going on.'' Arrests will be made when indictments are handed up, he
indicates. The flaky checks have turned up not only in Chicago, Detective Danz says, but also in Rockford and Bloomington, Ill., as well as parts of
Tennesee and northern Indiana. Losses to banks have totaled $45,000 in Chicago alone, he says.
What caused the checks to disintegrate? Detective Danz wil not say, lest a copycat try that. But each check did take on a distinctive odor after a
while, he notes.
''It smelled like a rotten egg.''
>end article.
Well... if its been done, that means it can be done... Time to make some advances in the current state of the art.... 
[Edited on 31-12-2010 by herbivore]
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jon
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they run checks digitally it won't do you much good anymore if you thought up a scheme someone is always a step ahead of you already.
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