RUBBER STAMP CLONING BASED ON AN AUTHENTIC RUBBER STAMP IMPRESSION.

New technologies, as well as their accessibility, contribute significantly to the change in counterfeiting methods used by criminals, raising many questions among forensic scientists. Knowing the operating parameters of these technologies provides the answers that forensic scientists need to adapt the examination methods and be able to provide correct conclusions. Cloning rubber stamps using a laser engraver, based on a genuine rubber stamp impression, is the method that removes the shortcomings of the rubber stamp impressions process counterfeited with the help of computing and printers. The objectives of the study are to construct clone rubber stamps starting from a genuine rubber stamp impression, using different processing possibilities offered by CorelDRAW graphic editing/processing software, as well as to establish the parameters that allow distinguishing between genuine rubber stamp impressions and counterfeit impressions made with cloned rubber stamps. In the content of the study, it is demonstrated that it is possible to clone rubber stamps using this method. The quality of the result of the cloning process is directly influenced by the type and quality of the image used. The study demonstrates that clone rubber stamps made based on a bitmap image or a vectorized bitmap image within the software, produce impressions that present certain specific features of character construction that allow them to be distinguished from the impressions of authentic rubber stamps. In the case of rubber stamps made by scanning an impression, loading it into CorelDraw software and using it as a pattern to create next to it a graphic design that imitates it as accurate as possible, there is the possibility of both discriminating or impossibility to discriminate between impressions made with a clone rubber stamps and those made with an authentic rubber stamp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]