Everyone who owns a personal computer has the ability to produce professional documents with relatively little effort. Worryingly, evidence is growing that the technology is being used for nefarious purposes. Computer-aided counterfeiting is on the increase.

The latest example is the faked letter purporting to be from Harrogate Borough Council which shows that desktop forgers can turn their hands to almost anything. It is up to us all to be on our guard.

Meanwhile, organisations that distribute employee identification badges on which the public rely must look at making them more difficult to copy.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.