Difference between revisions 895484529 and 895485000 on enwiki

A '''false document''' is a technique employed to create [[verisimilitude]] in a work of fiction. By inventing and inserting documents that appear to be factual, an author tries to create a sense of authenticity beyond the normal and expected [[suspension of disbelief]] for a [[work of art]]. The goal of a false document is to convince an audience that what is being presented is factual.

==In business==
Forged documents in business are typically for financial gain.

=== Material certificates ===
A material's [[Mill Test Report|certification]], essentially a report of its composition and properties, may be forged.  A low-property material, produced for lower cost, may be passed as a higher-property material, which has a higher price.  The difference becomes illicit profit. Counterfeit fasteners have low-strength alloys or inferior production processes, but are sold as high-strength fasteners.

=== Safety certificates ===
Similarly, parts, systems, and processes for high-valued operations may have their [[Quality Assurance|quality-assurance documents]] forged.  Substandard items may be cheaper or simply more readily available. Nuclear power plants in Japan and Korea have found components with forged safety documents.
''See also'': [[Information Assurance]]

=== Degree certificates ===
Academic degrees often qualify for recruitment, promotions and additional pay. There are many methods to get false degree certificates. First, university officials have been bribed to issue a certificate without study. Second, false universities called [[diploma mill]]s issue certificates that have no legal standing and are usually purchased outright without study, but they may still be legal. Finally, degree certificates have been directly [[Forgery|forged]], which is a felony in most jurisdictions. Besides the degree certificate itself, final theses and essays have been falsified by e.g. plagiarism, ghost writing or inclusion of fake references. Thus, the degree certificate itself is genuine but it may be revoked.⏎
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==In politics==
A forged document, the [[Zinoviev Letter]], helped bring the downfall of the first [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Government]] in Britain. Conspiracies within secret intelligence services have occurred more recently, leading [[Harold Wilson]]  to put in place rules to prevent in the 1960s [[phone tapping]] of [[members of Parliament]], for example.

(contracted; show full){{Reflist}}
* [[Curtis Peebles]] (1994). ''Watch the Skies: A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth'', [[Smithsonian Institution]], {{ISBN|1-56098-343-4}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:False Document}}
[[Category:Narratology]]
[[Category:False documents| ]]