Proof of a Doctored Text Message Wins Case

CHALLENGE

Plaintiff filed a sexual harassment claim. The allegation was that there had been text messages sent by the Defendant to support this claim. After months of asking for the alleged text messages, a PDF was produced that was represented to be a screenshot of an offending text message.

The law firm suspected that the newly produced “text message” might be fake.

The client needed expertise for the following:

To understand what steps to take to determine authenticity (or lack thereof)
To understand the differences between the creation of screenshots and PDFs
To understand the history of the Apple iOS and its hardware limitations across various iPhone models

Solution

Using a team of iDS experts, we evaluated the characteristics of the PDF content and provided testing and validation of various iPhone makes, models, and iOS versions.

The iDS Forensics Team tested, validated, and reported on the following:

Determined that the PDF was not a screenshot, but instead a created document
Identified well over 4-5 dozen technical discrepancies between the produced PDF and what an actual text message screenshot should look like
That the PDF was never a screenshot from an iPhone

Result

Through live testimony, the iDS expert was able to conclude, based on clear and convincing evidence, that the Plaintiff’s evidence was not authentic and was intentionally fabricated.

Our client won a trial verdict, stating that in large part it was due to the iDS work dissecting the evidence and our ability to testify about the results in plain English.