When you’re faxing a letter from your computer (directly from your word processor), how should you sign it?
Just put your name at the bottom,
put your name twice, once with a fancy font to look like a signature or scan in your signature and paste it in the space?
Write your signature on a piece of paper, digitize it with a scanner, save it as some graphic file your word processor understands, and then insert the graphic file in your letter where your signature should be.
Just make sure you keep the graphic of your signature safe so that other people can’t use it to forge your signature on their faxes.
I routinely fax stuff and add a graphic of my signature. I have often argued with banks and others about how ridiculous it is that they would accept a fax which can be very easily forged and they would not accept a digitally signed email which is almost impossible to forge. My bank insists I send them a fax. I keep telling them I can send them a fax with any signature they want, including JFK’s or Dubya’s. It just goes to show you inertia is hard to overcome. The banks will not accept my instructions by phone even though I know the person and she knows my voice. She is not concerned with security, she is concerned with covering her backside. So long as she follows the rules, she is safe.
I think there are actually laws that she cannot accept telephoned instructions in this situation without written authorization. I know you have to sign something authorizing a broker to act on the basis of telephone instructions or they can’t make trades for you without a fax.
emails are not accepted legal doc’s but faxes are. that’s the reason. I use a scanned image of my sig for faxes.
Before I got a scanner I had to sign something and fax back. I did the best I could using the mouse and paint (or paintbrush - it might have been win 3.11) - didn’t look pretty but it got by.
If I don’t want to mess around with a signature I will just let it go with my name at the bottom (1 time) w/o a sig.
No they’re not. At this time, the only legally accepted “signed” electronic documents are Telex. Telex have an authentication protocol that has been tested in the courts. Faxes can be forged, Telexes cannot.
I use a Wacom tablet to sign my faxes, or at least I did until I moved and never saw the stylus again.
I’d say it’s much easier to forge a fax than a signed document (through the miracle of modern technology) in that a well-trained expert could probably examine an actual ink-on-paper signature and tell pretty conclusively whether the person whose signature it is was really the signer.
So it would be a pretty lame organization that didn't ask for a follow-up hardcopy of any important documents, preferably signed in the presence of witnesses.
When I bought my house, a lot of the paperwork was done via fax, but all the scary, real, legally binding stuff was done with gimlet-eyed lawyers and notaries looking on.Thank for the replies…
I guess I wasn’t really clear with my question… I wasn’t so much concerned about legalities, but more in etiquette.
I want to know if faxing a CV/Resume with a cover letter really requires a signature or not, since I’m faxing directly from my word processor.
Thanks…
Who died and made you supreme world legislator? Under Ontario law, faxes are perfectly accepted as signed, legally-binding documents, at least in some cases. I’m currently in the process of filing a court claim in Toronto, and the guidebook I have (which cites provincial laws) states that the claim may be served personally, by mail, or by fax. I am required to swear an affidavit of service upon delivery by any method. Unless the defendants can prove that they did not receive the faxed claim, they are legally required to file a defence or risk default judgment.
For all you know, the OP could be in Pottsylvania, where delivery by carrier pigeon is the only legally-accepted method of transmitting official documents.
I have always been amazed that signatures are thought to be real proof that somebody in particular signed a document. Some of my banks have somewhere my signature on file. I don’t believe for a minute they have ever checked anything against that. I disagree with Finagle that a trained pro could really say if a signature is forged. Some will be obvious but not the ones done by someone good. At least before computers with hand written signatures it took a person of some skill to forge something. But now as illustrated by the OP the skills to do this are the skills that most people working in a white collar job need to have to hold their job.
I think there are documents and then there are Documents. psychonaut says he can send stuff by fax and that is OK. It is probably not OK for every thing. Don’t summons sometimes have to be delivered in person. As Finagle points out the real stuff tends to be signed in front of notaries. In California at least the notaries are now getting your thumb print in their log book so there is more proof that it was you who signed.
As far as digital signatures for email goes what was the law the President Clinton signed about digital signatures? I know it made them legally binding but surely then must be some mention of how they would work.