My client asks me to send a photo of a hand signature. Should I do this and is it safe?

[prestonhunter]

re: "My client asks me to send a photo of a hand signature. Should I do this and is it safe?"

This is an interesting question.

It might be completely safe.

If the client has no ill intent whatsoever and is a fair and honest person who simply thinks they need your signature for some reason... Then theoretically this could be safe.

On the other hand, this might not be safe at all. Maybe this not really a client, but is an identity thief. Or maybe it is a person who is planning to steal from you or sue you or do something else bad to you.

I have participated in the Community Forum for many years, and this is the first timeI have every read about a freelancer being asked to send a hand signature.

You are not being asked to sign an NDA document or any other type of form. You're simpy being asked to sign your name and send a photo of your signature?

This is - by definition - strange.

Can you proivde us with any more information?

What kind of job is this?

Did you ask the client why they are asking you to sign your name and take a photo of your signature and send the photo to them?

It certainly sounds like this is part of a nefarious scheme. But maybe there is an alternative explanation?

[almukhambetov]

Thank you for your reply, Preston.

My client is a translation agency and they hired me as a freelance translator through Upwork. They want me to sign a certificate of translation. But not with eSign, which I'm okay with, but to send them a photo of my hand signature. 

Also, I was surprised that they wrote my name and their company name under it. Like I work for them. But this is not so, I am just a freelancer who completed a project for them.

I believe they have good intentions, but I don't want to send a scan of my hand signature to somebody over the internet. In Kazakhstan, this is considered a nefarious scheme, so I'm wondering is it fine in other countries.

[prestonhunter]

Nail:

I don't know who you are dealing with or what is going on exactly.

But geneally speaking:

Signed certificates of translation are a real thing. That isn't a scheme or trick.

However: To the best of my understanding, one signs an actual certificate. One does not simply send a photo of a signature to be used any way that somebody wants.

[petra_r]

Don't do that. They will stick your signature on all sorts of stuff you never even translated!