How do I verify a bank statement is real?
A genuine bank statement is written directly by the bank’s core system, which leaves a distinctive structural signature. Re-save it through an editor or rebuild it in a spreadsheet and the file picks up a consumer-tool producer fingerprint and timestamps that drift apart — the mismatch HTPBE? flags as Modified.
The boundary: this checks the file, not the facts. It tells you whether the PDF was edited after the bank produced it. It does not confirm the account holder’s identity or that the balance is true — for that, pull the statement straight from the bank. See fake bank statement detection →
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How do lenders and underwriters verify bank statements?
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Most start by eyeballing logos, fonts, and totals — all of which a careful forger can reproduce. The structural layer is harder to fake. So lenders increasingly add an automated file check that catches edits hiding behind a correct-looking layout: a spreadsheet rebuild, an editor re-save, a balance changed after export.
HTPBE? runs that check at scale through the API — a verdict plus the named markers behind it for every statement in an application. It is a file-integrity layer that runs alongside identity and income verification, not instead of it. Bank statement detection guide. See the API →
Check that the net-pay maths, pay dates, and employer details are internally consistent, then look at how the file was produced. The most common forgery is a real payslip re-typed or edited in Word and exported again — which changes the producer fingerprint and the revision history HTPBE? reads.
HTPBE? tells you whether the payslip PDF was altered after it was generated. It does not confirm that the employer or the salary figure is real. That is the employer’s record to confirm, not the file’s. See fake salary slip detection →
The question has two halves. One: was the certificate PDF edited after it was issued? A changed name, grade, or date usually leaves structural traces that surface as Modified — and that is what a tamper check answers.
The other half — whether the issuing body actually awarded the certificate — no file check can answer. That lives in the registrar’s or awarding body’s records. Use HTPBE? to rule out file tampering, the issuer’s own portal to confirm the record. See fake certificate detection →