Many companies use and accept faxed signatures, good idea or not. I think the biggest problem is that they just don't understand the technology or the legal aspects.

Just yesterday I scanned in a document with my signature and attached it to an email as a pdf, and sent it off to a sales manager. (Thinking that not only was I saving time, but the cost of a long distance phone charge.) In just a few minutes her secretary called and asked if I could fax them the original. Of course I said, no. I could not fax the original but I could mail or FedEx it. This totally went over her head. She wanted to know why I could email the original but not fax it. So I told her that attachment in the email was a scanned copy of the document. She said they couldn't accept a copy, scanned or otherwise. She then ask me again to fas the original.

Then I asked why they would accept a fax and not an email. She told me that email was not secure so their policy was not to accept signatures on emailed documents.

I tried to explain that the fax was no more original than the scan but got nowhere. So in the end I gave up and faxed the "original".

It's no wonder this country is in the shape it is.