At 12:07 PM 1/20/97 -0500, Phillip M. Hallam-Baker wrote:
Depending on the country and bank you can probably perform almost any transfer you like by fax. I moved my pension from one bank to another simply by sending a fax. I have done similar transactions with Swiss, German and UK banks.
For some reason the fax is considered to be a practically infallible authentication device. Quite why is beyond me since it should be obvious to anyone that all one needs to fake a fax is a photocopier, document signed by account holder, paste and scissors. You get everything needed on a signed cheque.
A check is no good, most checks are now printed on paper with special lines that are supposed to become obvious after copying. A signed letter or even a mailing envelope would probably be better. Also, scotch tape makes those pexky shadows disapear like magic. My dad uses it to make multiple versions of make-up math tests that trivially look like the origional in order to goad persons who were sick on test day so that they could get the answers from someone else into printing down those answers and getting less than random probability. (multiple choice)