Lishkas Hakodesh, a public watchdog Stam (the Hebrew acronym of Sifrei Torah, Tefillin and Mezuzas) organization, has uncovered a massive fraud on the part of the well-known sofer Shimon Cohen. Cohen writes with truly beautiful letters, and it was known that he had made a computer font based on his handwriting. In the course of a din Torah in Jerusalem, it was discovered that the font had been used to print entire safrus products that were then overwritten in regular sofer ink. The products were sold to unsuspecting customers all over the world.
According to information received by me, dozens of sifrei Torah, hundreds of tefillin, and thousands of mezuzas were produced this way. Sales were concentrated in New York, Monsey, Lakewood, Chicago and Mexico but sales were made elsewhere. The writing is Ksav Vellish, the style usually used by Sephardic Jews.
Click here for the first article.
Click here for the second, more detailed article.
Here are photographs of several examples of the products involved.
Click here for the letters from Beis Din Ahavat Shalom and Beis
Din Eida HaChareidis.
Click here two parshas from the same Sofer. One written conventionally
and the other overwriting print.
Click here for samples of words and letters after treatment with
chemicals that dissolve regular safrus ink.
