Supported document type
Detect tampered and deepfake Payment Schedule
A payment schedule sets out what is owed and when across instalments or milestones, for a tuition plan, a purchase, a fee arrangement, or a settlement. It is not a loan schedule and has no interest arithmetic behind it, so the two things that matter are that the instalments add up to the agreed total and that the paid or unpaid status matches the receipts. Both are easy to alter and easy to test.
API slug: payment_schedule
What a genuine payment schedule contains
A payment schedule names the payee and payer and references the contract, invoice, or plan it belongs to. It gives the total amount and lists each instalment with a due date and amount. Many add a status column showing what has been paid, a running balance, and terms for late payment.
The list is constrained by the total. The instalments should sum to the agreed amount, dates should run in order at the stated interval, and the first and last payments may legitimately differ. The status column should agree with receipts and bank records. The issuer's letterhead and reference must match the contract that the schedule refers to.
How payment schedule forgeries are made
Instalment reduction
Amounts are lowered so the burden looks smaller for an affordability assessment. The list stops summing to the stated total unless the total is edited too, and edited numbers are rendered differently.
Date shifting
Due dates are pushed later to show cash-flow room that does not exist. Sequence and interval errors expose the change.
Paid status forgery
Rows are marked as paid to show a clean history or to claim credit for fees. The mark has no corresponding receipt or bank debit.
Fabricated plans
A whole schedule is created on an institution's branding to evidence an arrangement that never existed. Resampled logos and mismatched typography differ from real issuer output.
What TamperCheck checks on a payment schedule
TamperCheck runs 200+ forensic checks across three layers and returns a risk score from 0 to 100 with plain-English findings tied to specific regions of the document. These three carry the most weight on this document class.
Arithmetic reconciliation
Stated totals are recomputed from their components, and running or cumulative figures are checked for continuity across periods. A single edited value breaks the chain even when the page still looks right.
Table structure integrity
Inserted and deleted rows leave structural artifacts behind: inconsistent spacing, misaligned columns, and formatting the visible table no longer accounts for.
Letterhead, logo, and issuer plausibility
Issuer branding is checked for resolution and compression consistency against the body text it sits on. A logo lifted from a website carries the signature of its source, not of the document.
And many more checks
The three above are the layers that carry the most weight on a payment schedule. Every upload runs the full suite of 200+ checks regardless of document class, spanning file structure and metadata, pixel-level forensics, font and text rendering, optical and print characteristics, provenance signals, AI-generation signatures, and many more checks.
Who verifies a payment schedule, and why
Universities, embassies, finance teams, and lenders reviewing payment commitments. In each case the document is being used to unlock money, access, or a legal status, which is exactly what makes it worth forging.
How to verify a payment schedule in 4 steps
Check the fields against each other
Read instalment amounts, due dates, and paid or unpaid status together rather than one at a time. Forgers typically change one value and leave the rest of the document describing the original.
Inspect the file metadata
Open the document properties and look at the producer, creation date, and modification date. A document produced by a consumer PDF editor, or created long after the date printed on its face, is worth a closer look.
Ask for a second document
Request a corroborating document from the same issuer or an adjacent period. Forgery effort concentrates on one file, so inconsistencies surface as soon as there are two to compare.
Run a forensic check
Manual review catches obvious edits but not field-level pixel manipulation or synthetic generation. TamperCheck runs 200+ forensic checks on a payment schedule and returns a risk score from 0 to 100 in about a minute, at $0.50 per document.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check that a payment schedule is genuine?
Add the instalments and compare with the total, confirm the dates run in sequence, and match the status column against receipts. Then compare the payee and reference with the underlying contract. A forensic scan shows whether figures were edited after issue.
Can an instalment plan document be faked?
Yes. It is usually a simple table on a letterhead. The edits that matter are amounts, dates, and paid status, and each can be checked against the total, the sequence, and the payment records.
Who asks for a payment schedule?
Universities and embassies reviewing how fees will be met, lenders assessing commitments, and finance teams tracking receivables. In each case the schedule is evidence of an obligation, so its accuracy is part of the decision.
How is a payment schedule different from an amortization schedule?
A payment schedule is a plain list of amounts and dates. An amortization schedule is derived from a loan's principal, rate, and term and splits each payment into interest and principal. Only the second can be recomputed from a formula.
TamperCheck analyses payment schedule uploads with a hybrid forensic and AI pipeline tuned for this document class. Upload endpoints accept PDF and common image formats; class is inferred automatically. See the API documentation for authentication, async jobs, and webhooks.