Word document + Date

Things.Past

Hi all, very new to all this so please bare with me.

I have recently received a letter from a company who told me they have sent this identical letter out to me four times, first time in 2011.
Personally i don't beleive this and have told them so. I asked if this had been wrote in a word document, yes was the reply, i then asked for the original letter to be placed on a CD and sent to me. Why you ask, well i was hoping to prove that the document was not of the supposed original date of 2011. This follows after speaking to a gentleman who told be that one can search the document source and find the original details such as date when wrote etc.
Although i have asked for the letter to be sent via a CD i am still not sure how i can make the check and if its possible to prove the date originally wrote.

Any ideas please.

StuC75

Not sure what that would achieve?

if the computers time\date was set to 2011 (or any such date - heck even the future?), the file was then created and saved off.. then that would be saved as the file attribute.. doesn't prove anything.. Not like they could carbon date the disk :-)..

Even proof of posting wouldn't be proof of receipt..

G42

Wouldn't prove a thing. The attributes of a file can be changed using readily available software.

Sooler

Depends on the version of Word.

You may find some info in the metadata with the MS Document Inspector

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/word-help/inspect-documents-for-hidden-data-and-personal-information-HA010074435.aspx

But they may have removed hidden data
http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/word-help/remove-hidden-data-and-personal-information-by-inspecting-documents-HA010354329.aspx

Things.Past

Thanks for the replies.
If the original document has not been changed then it would prove a date, in this case 2011, however if the word document had been created, say 2012, then this is what i would be in search of.

WTFH

They can just email it to you, then all you do is go into document properties and look at date created and date modified.
How do they say they sent it to you in the past?
The date created is not necessarily the original creation date. If they have renamed it, it will have a new creation date, so viewing the attributes will prove nothing.

Things.Past

WTFH wrote: »

They can just email it to you, then all you do is go into document properties and look at date created and date modified.
How do they say they sent it to you in the past?
The date created is not necessarily the original creation date. If they have renamed it, it will have a new creation date, so viewing the attributes will prove nothing.

Thanks for the reply.

Letters apparently have been sent via RM at various dates since 2011. After telling them that I had not received any of the letters, they were adamant and that the original document in word is sitting in the files on there computer.

I have asked for the original document from there computer, I was hoping to make my own checks in some in-depth way. Hense the question.

I cannot go into to much detail because of the nature of the content, but really need to know how I can check the authenticity of the document.
I was of the idea and as an example, that if they were to back date a laptop for instance, copied the word document contents into the back dated system; I might well be unable to find the original date...

macman

You can't verify it. The dates can be changed at will as explained.