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The fax protocol provides a real-time recipient receipt. Email doesn't.

Seriously. That's the reason that fax is still popular in the medical industry.

Also the limitations of fax sort of end up being it's differentiator to email and it's biggest advantage. Not needing an email server is a big boon, not really being susceptible to phishing is a boon, and with modern fax over internet it's virtually indistinguishable in user experience from email.

I remember fax phishing even before I had ever heard of email. From many large companies, simply paying a sub $100 invoice was standard procedure without even checking with the other internal bodies.

This is true, but it's much less of a concern because:

1. You get way less faxes than emails.

2. Faxes can't steal credentials.

3. You should be auditing expenses anyway.

If only a standard existed to do this... Hint: it exists since ages in Italy and it has been extended to Europe recently (See Registered Electronic Mail - RFC 6109 and ETSI EN 319 532 – 4)

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