Why would I need to check payment confirmations and receipts?
Payment confirmations are easy to fake, and a PDF of one is not proof that money moved. Checking the file tells you whether the confirmation was edited after it was generated. That is a useful red flag, but the payment itself has to be confirmed in your own account.
Where fake confirmations show up
- Marketplace sellers: a buyer sends a fake payment confirmation to receive goods before paying.
- Freelancers: a client shows an edited bank transfer claiming payment was sent.
- Rentals and accommodation: a tenant provides a modified receipt to avoid paying.
- Online businesses: customers submit altered invoices or receipts to claim refunds or discounts.
- Peer-to-peer deals: someone shows fake proof of payment to receive goods or services.
What HTPBE? can tell you
- Modified — the file was changed after it was created. Do not act on it. Ask the sender for a fresh confirmation and look at your account.
- Intact — no structural evidence of editing. It still does not prove that the payment exists.
- Inconclusive — the file’s origin can’t vouch for it. That is common for payment confirmations, and a screenshot saved as a PDF is never returned as Intact. It is not proof of fraud, but it means proof of payment has to come from somewhere else.
What to do instead of trusting the PDF
- Look for the incoming payment in your own bank or payment platform: amount, reference and sender.
- Release goods or services only once the funds are received in your account.
- Ask for the bank’s own confirmation, downloaded from online banking, rather than a screenshot.
- Run the file through HTPBE? as an additional signal, and keep the check ID with the order.
Limits
HTPBE? does not read the amounts or names in the document, so it cannot say whether a figure is right. It also cannot tell you whether a transfer arrived, or whether it was later reversed. Use it alongside checking your own account, not instead of it.
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3 answers
How Detection Works
It depends on the file. HTPBE? detects modification after creation, not fabricated content: a document that was false from the start carries no trace of later editing. Use it as one layer of a fraud check.
HTPBE? looks for evidence inside the file that it was changed after it was created, reports each finding by name, and returns Intact, Modified or Inconclusive. It reads the file, not the text of the document.
Privacy, Data & Limits
Files up to 10 MB (10,485,760 bytes) are accepted, in the web app and through the API. Larger files are rejected with an error. Compressing or splitting a file creates a new file, so the verdict describes that copy.