Hacker News Reader

Comment by function_seven | Hacker News Reader

Just a couple months ago I had a couple of forms rejected with a note “needs wet signature”

They were for a 401(k) plan I was updating RMD choices. I got the PDF form from their site, filled it out in Preview, pasted my signature PNG, and used an app on my phone to fax it(!) to their number.

Got rejected. Had to actually print the damn things and sign them with a pen, scan them again with my phone’s camera, and re-fax them.

Was mildly infuriating.

View on HN

As an HR administrator for a small business, this absolutely grinds my gears. According to every accountant and consultant I've ever talked to, the "wet signature" rule is enshrined in federal law (although I have yet to be able to find out exactly where). It applies to all brokerage operations (opening your custodial accounts); employee applications (even internal to your own company that never leave your own filing cabinet - keep in case of audit!); statements of information (form 5500) filed with the IRS (it's the only form you can't submit electronically - needs a wet signature?!). For everything else we deal with a saved drop-in signature in Acrobat works just fine. Almost not worth the employee's savings given their low participation rate and general ambivalence to the whole program.

Not sure if it's new, but I just recently filed a 5500 online. You can do it here: https://www.efast.dol.gov/welcome.html

But yes, dealing with brokerage forms that needed a wet signature faxed..

My mistake on the 5500 - we have a consultant / tax preparer that files the actual form for us, so it does look like the actual filing is electronic. What I was incorrectly remembering, it turns out, was that the authorization form for our consultant to electronically file needed a wet signature.

I printed, signed, scanned, and emailed Ameritrade. My scan was so good that it got rejected. They told me that digital signature is not accepted.

This has happened to me in the past. Now I always make sure to damage the paper and avoid putting it in the scanner straight. Bend a corner, wrinkle it a little, and select the image mode on the scanner to avoid the background looking too clean.

Add some fake coffee mug stains and lens flare :D

http://legacy.hanno-rein.de/hanno-rein.de/archives/349

For Latex documents, but same concept and a fun little add on.

Do you think it might have worked if you had run it through this FalsiScan program?

Yes, I bet it would have, and I wish I had heard about it then!

When I refaxed the forms, I just removed the PNG signatures from the PDFs first (leaving all other form fields typed in), printed them, signed them, made sure the two signatures were different in obvious ways (but still the "same"!), and scanned them at deliberately low resolution.

This program sounds like it automates all those steps.

Vanguard?

They're ridiculous with this. It's a huge pain with trusts.

SavingsPlus. They handle California's retirement programs.

How wet ? You could add a "splash" effect on top of the signature

Maybe a coffee cup ring?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com