6 ms·

Not to defend the intelligence of crooks, but... Although you can convert a PDF to Word and back in a few clicks, the layout won't match perfectly (depending o

by tlb 9y ago

Not to defend the intelligence of crooks, but... Although you can convert a PDF to Word and back in a few clicks, the layout won't match perfectly (depending on how the PDF was generated). If you're trying to forge a PDF document, you want it to look exactly the same as the original, which probably requires some fiddling with formatting. So it's not unreasonable to delegate that to a trusted henchman.

ocdtrekkie 9y ago
The correct solution is to use a paid version of Adobe Acrobat, which will let you do minor revisions to text. Bet he's wishing he shelled out that $150 or so now.
- bringtheaction 9y ago
  Why would a criminal not just pirate the software? Wouldn’t even have had to spend those $150 then. (PS I am not encouraging software piracy in general - just saying why would a criminal care?) (PPS there are some cases where piracy is ok and it is not all negative, let your moral compass guide you.)
  - ocdtrekkie 9y ago
    When you're doing seven-figure crime, a three-figure piece of software is not even a footnote worth worrying about, and bear in mind, successful software piracy requires some manner of technical proficiency, which obviously, he does not have. (In a general sense, criminals should probably stay legit where possible, if you're stealing millions of dollars of art from a museum, you wouldn't want to get pinched because you got caught stealing a candy bar from the convenience store a block over.)
    - bringtheaction 9y ago
      Well I mean he had a loss of $600,000. You are right that he probably wouldn’t have been able to figure out how to apply a crack though, let alone find a pirated version in the first place.
    - duck 9y ago
      That and pirated software often contains trojan horses that open you up for other attacks and that is probably even worse when you're a criminal.
    - zaarn 9y ago
      Software piracy doesn't require a lot of skill anymore. If I were, hypothetically, someone who used pirated software in the past and checked the state of the business recently, I would know that recent releases are basically a "Run this .exe File" and it would install all necessary dependencies, the software in question and patch the cracks in. Common misconception is also malware, you usually only get that when you google "<insert software name here> crack" and click on the first link without thinking. There are plenty of reputable sources on the internet which distribute malware free cracks and will punish offenders of this rule (of course, I wouldn't know anything about such sites). PS: If the above hypothetical situation were true, I'd be paying for my software now, it would have been mostly due to lack of monetary sources.
      - Symmetry 9y ago
        If you have not know what the reputable sites are rather than just Googling then that's the skill that piracy requires.
- bambax 9y ago
  Many software packages let you edit PDFs directly without ever converting it out of PDF; uncompressed PDFs can even be edited as text (and if there's no encryption, decompressing a compressed PDF is a simple task). But usually if you want complete control, without weird artifacts here and there, the easiest way is to completely recreate the document from scratch (depending on length and complexity of the original). The people you're sending the doctored version to, by definition don't have access to the original (or they would spot the fake), and usually can't compare the doctored version to a similar original document, and even if they could, probably won't. They want a document; you give them something that sort of looks like what they're expecting, and they're happy.
  - trumpdynasty 9y ago
    Kind of a tangent but the Obama birth certificate PDF had seemingly strong arguments from experts about possible manipulation. Were those claims legit and is it possible the government altered the layers purposely just to stoke the extremes? I obviously believe Obama was born in Hawaii by other strog evidence but the PDF still seemed bizarre. Everything seems perfectly mysterious enough in a peculiar way.
  - trumpdynasty 9y ago
    My username is a joke but way to flag any discussion of an objectively strange PDF. Thanks.
- LeifCarrotson 9y ago
  Or use the free, open source Inkscape software, which will also let you do minor revisions to text. Note that the 'minor' restriction in both is that you don't really get re-flowing of your entire document, just the individual text blocks. If you want it to be really easy, you need to edit the source document from which the PDF was generated.
jopsen 9y ago
or just print it out and do it the old school way, before scanning the document again :)
wyldfire 9y ago
If a lender never saw the original document, it's likely that they might not notice a misformatted PDF as evidence of collateral. Ultimately, for loans like this they shouldn't take evidence of collateral from an individual, or they should require that it be certified by notaries/other auditors/etc.

by tlb 9y ago

ocdtrekkie 9y ago

The correct solution is to use a paid version of Adobe Acrobat, which will let you do minor revisions to text. Bet he's wishing he shelled out that $150 or so now.

bringtheaction 9y ago
Why would a criminal not just pirate the software? Wouldn’t even have had to spend those $150 then. (PS I am not encouraging software piracy in general - just saying why would a criminal care?) (PPS there are some cases where piracy is ok and it is not all negative, let your moral compass guide you.)
- ocdtrekkie 9y ago
  When you're doing seven-figure crime, a three-figure piece of software is not even a footnote worth worrying about, and bear in mind, successful software piracy requires some manner of technical proficiency, which obviously, he does not have. (In a general sense, criminals should probably stay legit where possible, if you're stealing millions of dollars of art from a museum, you wouldn't want to get pinched because you got caught stealing a candy bar from the convenience store a block over.)
  - bringtheaction 9y ago
    Well I mean he had a loss of $600,000. You are right that he probably wouldn’t have been able to figure out how to apply a crack though, let alone find a pirated version in the first place.
  - duck 9y ago
    That and pirated software often contains trojan horses that open you up for other attacks and that is probably even worse when you're a criminal.
  - zaarn 9y ago
    Software piracy doesn't require a lot of skill anymore. If I were, hypothetically, someone who used pirated software in the past and checked the state of the business recently, I would know that recent releases are basically a "Run this .exe File" and it would install all necessary dependencies, the software in question and patch the cracks in. Common misconception is also malware, you usually only get that when you google "<insert software name here> crack" and click on the first link without thinking. There are plenty of reputable sources on the internet which distribute malware free cracks and will punish offenders of this rule (of course, I wouldn't know anything about such sites). PS: If the above hypothetical situation were true, I'd be paying for my software now, it would have been mostly due to lack of monetary sources.
    - Symmetry 9y ago
      If you have not know what the reputable sites are rather than just Googling then that's the skill that piracy requires.
bambax 9y ago
Many software packages let you edit PDFs directly without ever converting it out of PDF; uncompressed PDFs can even be edited as text (and if there's no encryption, decompressing a compressed PDF is a simple task). But usually if you want complete control, without weird artifacts here and there, the easiest way is to completely recreate the document from scratch (depending on length and complexity of the original). The people you're sending the doctored version to, by definition don't have access to the original (or they would spot the fake), and usually can't compare the doctored version to a similar original document, and even if they could, probably won't. They want a document; you give them something that sort of looks like what they're expecting, and they're happy.
- trumpdynasty 9y ago
  Kind of a tangent but the Obama birth certificate PDF had seemingly strong arguments from experts about possible manipulation. Were those claims legit and is it possible the government altered the layers purposely just to stoke the extremes? I obviously believe Obama was born in Hawaii by other strog evidence but the PDF still seemed bizarre. Everything seems perfectly mysterious enough in a peculiar way.
- trumpdynasty 9y ago
  My username is a joke but way to flag any discussion of an objectively strange PDF. Thanks.
LeifCarrotson 9y ago
Or use the free, open source Inkscape software, which will also let you do minor revisions to text. Note that the 'minor' restriction in both is that you don't really get re-flowing of your entire document, just the individual text blocks. If you want it to be really easy, you need to edit the source document from which the PDF was generated.

jopsen 9y ago

or just print it out and do it the old school way, before scanning the document again :)

wyldfire 9y ago

If a lender never saw the original document, it's likely that they might not notice a misformatted PDF as evidence of collateral. Ultimately, for loans like this they shouldn't take evidence of collateral from an individual, or they should require that it be certified by notaries/other auditors/etc.