Long Form Birth Certificate (LFBC) Forgery Detection for Dummies After Arizona Sheriff Arpaio announced the

Cold Case Posse's finding that the president's birth certificate was forged, I thought we needed a simple do-it-yourself test so our good citizens could check it themselves. Long Form Birth Certificate (LFBC) Forgery Detection for Dummies describes a technique that anyone with a modicum of computer knowledge can use. The LFBC test can be performed on a basic Windows computernothing is stored on the computer and no other software is required.

Certificate of Live Birth cropped from Snopes.com. Years ago forging a document that used a typeface from the sixties was a formidable task and required a high degree of skill. With the advent of computers, much of the skill has been offloaded to graphic programs. While there are different versions of Windows, all come with a simple graphics program (Paint) that has the capability to perform the LFBC test.

It probably wasn't difficult for the forger to obtain a LFBC that had the correct handwritten data so only a few typewritten fields had to be changed. To perform the LFBC test you need to obtain a copy of the LFBC. Some posted copies lack sufficient detail so a high resolution copy is required. Copies are available from many websites as well as Snopes.com. Depending on the version of Windows used, there may be differences in the naming conventions shown. Paint has trouble accommodating today's high resolution screens; use the Minimize Button before capturing an image with Prnt Scrn. The image can also be made smaller by adjusting the borders (where the cursor changes to a double-headed arrow). If Paint is not on your desktop or Start Menu it may be accessed by clicking Start/All Programs/Accessories/Paint. Once you have a copy of the LFBC on your screen, proceed as follows: 1. Position the minimized LFBC so all typed fields are visible then press Prnt Scrn to copy a bitmap image to the Clipboard then close the browser. 2. From Windows load Paint then select Edit/Paste to paste the LFBC into Paint. 3. Using Paint's Select tool (top right of the tool stack) crop and resize the LFBC. 4. Select Edit/Copy to copy the resized LFBC to the Clipboard. 5. Select File/New/Don't Save then select Image/Attributes and set the Height and Width to 10 pixels then click OK. 6. Select Edit/Paste to copy the resized LFBC to the screen. 7. Click Paint's Pencil tool (left side of the tool stack). 8. Select Image/Resize/Skew then enter 500% for both Resize fields then click OK. It may be necessary to vary the image resize to suit the screen resolution and/or personal preference. If you've gotten this far, you're now in position to examine the LFBC. Kerning is the process of adjusting the spacing between characters in a proportional font to achieve a visually pleasing result. A typewritten document utilizes a fixed font so there should be no evidence of kerning. Any variation of spacing between characters is an indication that the document may have been tampered with. To assist in comparing characters, it is convenient to outline a group of characters with Paint's Select tool then Copy/Paste them directly to the LFBC. Once they are on the LFBC they can be moved close to the characters being compared. If you are new to Paint, some experimentation may be required.

If you examine the LFBC there are instances of different character spacing. At a glance, Wichita, Africa and African have wider ic spacing (where c follows a lower case i) than Gynecological. The base document may have contained Gynecological and perhaps later Wichita, Africa and African were added. With a little effort other anomalies can be found. Some LFBC fields may not have been altered while there is convincing evidence others have. For those who care to delve further, Lord Monckton of Brenchley (former policy adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher) has submitted a rigorous examination of the LFBC in a briefing paper he prepared for the House of Lords. Another technique (using Paint) is beyond the scope of Forgery Detection for Dummies but converts the LFBC to a gif file. Next a transparent gif file of a character grouping is created (e.g. ic) and overlaid on an identical group. If the document wasn't tampered with, it should be an exact match and overlay perfectly. Distribute freely ~ BaronvonKluge@aol.com