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Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

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Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#52
post #42
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re intentionally returning unsigned contacts to employers hoping they don’t notice? Seeing how you’re first action in each of your new jobs is done in bad faith I think I see why you’ve had to fill out six of them…

How does a handwritten signature prove anything? They are so easy to forge. I always wondered WHY ARE PEOPLE IN THE US ASKED TO SIGN A RECEIPT WHEN THEY PAY BY CREDIT CARD? I can draw literally any scraggles and they’ll accept it. Are they supposed to compare to the signature I put on my card?

>Are they supposed to compare to the signature I put on my card?

Probably historically; I think I've had it rarely in the distant past.

Signatures are fairly uncommon these days. And the places where you sign a pad you just swipe a finger and no one blinks an eye. I'd say it was just outmoded POS systems but I've seen it on newer systems too. It probably does, as someone else wrote, constitute a bit more assent than clicking a button does even if not much.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#53

The answer is if it isn’t notarized I didn’t sign it. Go away. And then I submit a copy of one the judge signed as evidence.

You must be that lucky person who doesn't live in Poland. An electric administrative court in Poland doesn't even check if the provided evidence is correct in any way. They automatically assume the plaintiff is right, according to the official law. And if you don't object plaintiff's accusations, you lose. They try to contact you by mail, but if they can't, they don't care. It's your fault they couldn't deliver mail to you which looks just like any other scam.

The scammer fakes the evidence, submits the case electronically, can request any amount of money and wins by default. Nice, isn't it? You've officially lost in this circus "court". Good luck proving anything to the real court now, as it would consume a lot of your money, time and mental sanity. In the meantime, the scammer is officially allowed to seize any of your money they decided you "owe" them.

You would not expect something like this exist in an EU country, would you?

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#54
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had to do a one-off brokerage (where I don't have a personal representative) transfer fairly recently and, although they loosened up a bit during COVID, they were back to basically requiring me to show up at a brokerage branch in person. In theory, I could have gotten a Medallion Signature from my bank but it turned out they couldn't do it at my local branch and getting their central system to do it failed, so I ju…

A passport, or some other difficult-to-forge document, could be used right?

Only physically though.

Many years ago, possessing the values on a passport constituted verification. This data was stored and after a significant number of leaks, this data alone was useless as it became public knowledge. The next step was requiring a photo of the document. The photos were stored, and after a significant number of leaks, the same thing happened. The next step was ID selfies. Then the same thing happened. Now it’s selfie videos with the ID. This too will become useless when those videos are leaked.

It’s a never ending battle. A passport is a physical document and should only be used physically.

Online, we need public/private key authentication. It’s the only way.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#55
post #2

Someone did this recently to me i.e. showed me something I'd signed which I didn't. Fortunately this lead to their demise as I am friends with their manager which was unknown by the party in question. Historically I tend to try something on with employment contracts too - I return an unsigned copy to the company. Only 1 out of 6 companies I worked for didn't just stick it in a filing cabinet and forget about it. Ulti…

> It must be the full document plaintext and date signed with your private key and should be verifiable with your public key by a court before a claim is even approachable.

This is called a notary public. Its a routine requirement with immigration documents. .They can also certify copies as true.

In UK for sone reason it costs over £100, and noone uses them, but in eastern europe its common and notarising documents is like €5 - they just check you identity

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#56
post #50
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a nice answer but I don't think that prevents you from spending money on arbitration or their getting a default judgement against you.

do they even have jurisdiction? have the speakers agreed to arbitration? otherwise it's just more spam. edit: ah, okay, so they signed a "license agreement", which is basically a scam. welp.

They likely put a binding arbitration clause into the initial contract for speaking.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A passport, or some other difficult-to-forge document, could be used right?

Only physically though. Many years ago, possessing the values on a passport constituted verification. This data was stored and after a significant number of leaks, this data alone was useless as it became public knowledge. The next step was requiring a photo of the document. The photos were stored, and after a significant number of leaks, the same thing happened. The next step was ID selfies. Then the same thing happ…

And then private keys will leak. Nothing's perfect.

Requiring physical presence is a pain but it's probably tolerable for sufficiently high value transactions. Only works within the US. There's a related process with more hurdles for international.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#58
Putting aside any ethics questions. Sounds like the guys on their way to court did actually sign the contracts.

Not sure there is much get out clause for them tbh, Im not aware of any court anywhere that will take "didnt read the contract" as a get out of jail free card.

Always read the contract kids.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#59
post #2

Someone did this recently to me i.e. showed me something I'd signed which I didn't. Fortunately this lead to their demise as I am friends with their manager which was unknown by the party in question. Historically I tend to try something on with employment contracts too - I return an unsigned copy to the company. Only 1 out of 6 companies I worked for didn't just stick it in a filing cabinet and forget about it. Ulti…

> It must be the full document plaintext and date signed with your private key and should be verifiable with your public key by a court before a claim is even approachable. This is called a notary public. Its a routine requirement with immigration documents. .They can also certify copies as true. In UK for sone reason it costs over £100, and noone uses them, but in eastern europe its common and notarising documents i…

In the US, you usually just go into your bank branch. I'm not sure what the deal is if you don't have a local financial institution/lawyer/etc. (Exec admins are sometimes also notaries.)

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A passport, or some other difficult-to-forge document, could be used right?

Only physically though. Many years ago, possessing the values on a passport constituted verification. This data was stored and after a significant number of leaks, this data alone was useless as it became public knowledge. The next step was requiring a photo of the document. The photos were stored, and after a significant number of leaks, the same thing happened. The next step was ID selfies. Then the same thing happ…

I assumed this was only in regards to higher value interactions where meeting in person always makes sense.

I'm having trouble imagining a scenario where such a high level of assurance for real identity verification is required but is not worthwhile to meet in person.

Can you name a few examples?

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