Digital Signatures and Fraud

This subject has been one I have been actively watching and pushing on for nearly 30 years, ever since I dropped a seven-figure bank transfer request with bank account details on my commercial manager's desk, signed by him, to convince him to rescind the fax transfer authority at the company bank back in 1997/1998.

That discussion was an interesting one. The usual comment, "I know what I sign," was countered by my comment," Does the bank?" and then, 10 minutes later, I dropped said signed authority document on his desk.

The initial reaction was, "This is fraud, and you can't do that." I said, "I haven't used it yet, but it makes my point." Less than 10 minutes later, that fax authority for the bank was gone.

This was a couple of years before I came into financial services, and the job of fraud was not difficult to manage if you had the knowledge, as the technology of the day was more than adequate for the task.