Carbon dating is a technique used to test the age of a particular artifact. Newer items that are forgeries of the original can be traced and have their true age verified. The method works by analyzing the number of naturally occurring carbon-14 residing in the object. Because carbon-14 is unstable, it will slowly decay to normal carbon-12 over a fixed time schedule. Based on the amount of carbon-14 remaining in a given sample, scientists can calculate the age of the item.
An infrared counterfeit detector can scan an item with infrared light. If the material has an invisible infrared ink spot, the light will display the ink spot in the visible spectrum. A fraud detector can then easily spot whether the document is counterfeit or not. In addition, it is quite difficult for a fraudster to reproduce.
A statistical analysis can be used as a good indicator of fraud when receiving a list of payment obligations such as Medicare compensation fees. Benford's law states that the leading digit from real-life sources is distributed in a non-uniform way. The number 1 will appear as the first digit about 30 percent of the time, with 2 taking 17 percent and 3 taking 12 percent. This statistical anomaly can help detect when fraud is occurring by looking at the lists that do not follow these rules.
Ultraviolet (UV) machines are commonly used to detect counterfeit money at the point of sale. Before completing the purchase, the cashier simply holds the bill up to the UV light to look for irregularities. For example, there is a thin metallic strip inside every bill that is clearly visible under the light. Most counterfeit dollars are not sophisticated enough to produce and insert these strips.