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Participant
September 20, 2019
Question

how to determine the exact creation date of a .pdf if you suspect it is a forged document

  • September 20, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 2126 views

long story short, in leaving my former employer they made a potential fatal mistake. I asked for any employment agreements that were signed, low and behold I get back a file which I never signed, but has my purported signature on it. The signature doesn't match, but for this discussion that's a moot point, to be discussed with my local PD since in Oklahoma a forged signature on a document is called "uttering a false document"...i.e. forgery; and its a felony. Pretty stupid ehh? rather than do the right thing ask me to sign and offer a severance package they take the crooked route.

 

OK, that aside, exactly how do I manipulate this document, its a PDF I suspect was created in Acrobat 8 or 9, since thats the version they have in the compnay. Is there a way to see the metadata, and given that adobe is big on security is there a way to determine the real creation date (via hidden metadata )that abobe knows about; and see any changes that have been made, since the document had to have been created in May/June 2019, yet purports to be a 2013 creation.

 

I'm hoping there's a way to see the real dates etc, since a creation date in 2019 kinda blows away their claim.

 

While I'm on a macbook pro now, I do have an older windows laptop running windows 8 to use if needed.

 

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    2 replies

    Inspiring
    September 20, 2019

    With an open PDF, you can look at the "Propeerties" of the open PDF by using "File => Properties" and look the various tabs in the pop-up window. since it sounds like the documents have a wet signature, then the PDF would have to be a scan of the original document, so creation date is only for the scan and not the original document. Also all metadata is editable.

     

    You need to takl to an attorney and trusted adisors about this incident.

     

     

    Legend
    September 20, 2019

    It is not appropriate for us to Advise you in a legal matter, Adobe don’t allow their forums for that. You need to talk to a forensic specialist for forensic advice, but your lawyer first. 

     

    On a a technical point I can tell you there is no second, hidden, metadata.