How to avoid tampering with contract docs

Just wondering what happens if a client does that..

[jaski]

I am just a newbie you can say as far as written contracts are concerned .. and I have had my fair share of burnt fingers because of working without written contracts.

.. and as the saying goes .. once bitten twice shy .. I am just wondering what happens if a client simply changes printed pages of the written agreement we signed when those bad times come ... after all we just signed on the last page ..

What do you do to avoid that from happening?

[Macguru]

Writing to pdf can be a deterrant. Reading before you sign is a plus.

[gsx]

You put the number of pages on the last page/references to other documents or terms you may have.

[martinibuster]

You must have your own copies. Any changes to the original must be initialized by you.

I wouldn't do business with any organization that unscrupulous.

[jaski]

I was wondering if people inital all the pages of the contract or what .. sounds crazy though .. but then what do they do.. (I mean the printed sheets)

[HitProf]

We sign all pages. It doesn't matter if they do, they need to show your sign on their copy.

[rogerd]

It's not unusual for both parties to a contract to initial every page, although each party having an original copy signed at the end by both parties is usually sufficient. I've never personally encountered a case of after-the-fact document tampering. I suppose if the two parties had different "original" versions they each claimed were valid, some kind of forensic analysis could determine which one had a page substituted. It would be kind of embarrassing to have a lab determine that your version of page 7 didn't match the signed documents, and would no doubt leave you open to fraud charges. Probably why most people don't try it.

[BjarneDM]

well - we are living in The Digital Age :)

Suggestion: use an MD5 or PGP/GPG signature on all pages, that is : take the contract page by page and apply a digital signatue algorithm to it and then print the signature somewhere on the page, and/or print all of them on the last page with the written signatures.

Now,
1) if the client tries to alter any page, they'll be unable to regenerate a new digital signature as you have the key
2) if you try to change the text, the client has the original with your signature and as you are the only one able to generate a valid signature ...