Fraud often reveals itself when something is wrong.
A Professional Engineer may get a call or email from a consumer asking about a project the engineer knows nothing about. The consumer is frustrated when the “engineer” they hired stops responding.
Or, a building official reviewing a set of plans spots an error and calls the PE whose seal appears on the drawings.
The answer isn’t what anyone wants to hear: The PE didn’t prepare the plans, didn’t review them, and never authorized use of the seal.
That scenario is becoming easier to create.
Engineering seals, signatures, license numbers, business addresses, and other identifying information can be pulled from public records or previously submitted plans. With basic image-editing software, someone can paste those credentials onto another document and offer the resulting “engineering” through an online freelance marketplace.
The technology may be new, but fraud is not. What has changed is how easily someone can copy a legitimate PE’s identity and attach it to work that the engineer never saw.
And that means a seal should not always be the end of the verification process.
Warning signs in the plans
The North Carolina Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors has developed a checklist of red flags for potentially fraudulent engineering documents. No single flag proves fraud by itself, but several appearing together should prompt a closer look.
Start with the signature and seal. A scanned or photocopied appearance, a signature that looks pasted onto the page, a missing date, a blurry seal, the wrong state seal, or a license number that doesn’t match the named professional all warrant attention.
Then look at the document as a whole. Fraudulent plans may contain mismatched fonts, irregular sheet numbering, poorly copied title blocks, missing firm information, or notes that refer to another state’s building codes. Plans may also contain enough technical errors and review comments to raise a more basic question: Were these documents actually prepared under the responsible charge of the Professional Engineer whose name appears on them?
Contact information can provide another clue. An unexplained overseas telephone number, an email address that doesn’t match the PE’s name, incomplete contact information, or an inability to reach the licensee directly should prompt verification through an independent source.
Verify the PE — and the document
A license lookup is useful, but it answers only one question: Is the PE whose number appears on the documents licensed?
It does not answer the more important question: Did this PE prepare, review, and authorize these particular documents?
If something looks questionable, building officials and consumers should verify contact information independently through myfloridalicense.com or the PE’s established firm, rather than relying solely on the information printed on the plans. Contact the PE and ask whether the documents are theirs.
That simple step may expose a copied seal before defective or fraudulent work moves farther through the permitting or construction process.
Electronic signatures require similar care. A properly applied certificate-based digital signature can provide much stronger authentication than an image pasted onto a PDF. But printing that electronically signed document generally leaves only a picture of the signature behind. The authentication contained in the original electronic file is no longer available on the paper copy.
“Digitally signed” should not mean “looks like a digital signature.”
PEs can make theft harder
Professional Engineers should assume that anything placed in a public record may eventually be copied.
That does not mean seals should disappear from documents where they are legally required. It does mean PEs should pay attention to how electronic seals and signatures are created, stored, and applied. Certificate-backed digital signatures offer substantially more protection than a static image because they can help establish both who signed a particular file and whether the file changed afterward.
Engineers should also periodically search their own names, firms, and professional credentials online, particularly on freelance-service websites. Unsolicited engineering offers, extremely low prices, and promises of unusually fast turnaround for complex work are among the business-practice warning signs identified by North Carolina regulators.
If a PE discovers unauthorized use of their seal or signature, the incident should be documented and reported immediately to FBPE’s legal department. Because misuse of a seal may also involve professional identity theft, additional reports to law enforcement or other agencies, such as the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (ic3.gov), may be appropriate.
Know who you are hiring
Online marketplaces make it easy to purchase almost anything. Don’t treat professional engineering services like hiring someone to design a logo or to edit a photograph.
Before purchasing engineering services online, verify the PE using myfloridalicense.com. Confirm that the person is licensed in Florida and that the person has appropriate experience and competence for the work. Communicate directly with that professional rather than only through an unidentified intermediary.
Be especially cautious when the price seems too low, payment is only accepted through mobile payment services or online money transfers, or a complex project can supposedly be completed unusually quickly.
The seal represents a licensed Professional Engineer accepting responsibility for the engineering work behind it.
In a world of downloadable public records, cut-and-paste graphics, and international freelance marketplaces, preserving that meaning requires one additional habit:
Trust the seal. But when something doesn’t look right, verify the PE behind it.