Secure transmission of W9 form?

[JON JOHANNING]

Folks,

I need to send a W9 form to a company, which I have done before. But I don’t want to send it by ordinary email. What is a more secure method that people have used?

TIA,

Jon Johanning
jjoha...@igc.org

[John Stroman]

John,

I always sign and date, make a photocopy, scan it into an image PDF, and send it electronically. If your printer does not have a scanner, I suspect a local office supply store has a do-it-yourself printer that can scan and make a PDF for you if you take a thumb drive with you. You can then delete the PDF from their computer.

John Stroman

----------------

[John Zimet]

John

 

Acrobat has encryption, but I think you have to have the non-free version to do that.

There are also free and very inexpensive encryption programs out there.

 

John Zimet

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[Dr. M. S. Niranjan]

On 2020/02/07 20:42, John Zimet wrote:
> I need to send a W9 form to a company, which I have done before. But I
> don’t want to send it by ordinary email. What is a more secure method
> that people have used?

Just a hunch. Please check if sending the scanned W9 form through some
of the file transfer utilities such as YouSendIt or WeTransfer, etc., is
encrypted and safe. Of course, you can password-protect the file and
send the password to the recipient separately, as an additional measure
of safety.

Niranjan
(Dr. M. S. Niranjan)

[Joe Jones]

If your concern is someone getting your SSN and stealing your identity, you might want to apply for an IRS EIN as a sole proprietor, and use the EIN on your W-9. Regardless of how you send it, the contents of that W-9 will always be at the mercy of the recipient's information security (or lack thereof).

Daniel Joseph ("Joe") Jones
Attorney at Law - Admitted in DC/MD/NY

Law Office of D. J. Jones PLLC
2201 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20007 USA
Tel +1 202 750 4637
Fax +1 844 578 5824
 
This email and any attachment is intended only for use by specified addressees and may contain privileged and confidential information. If you are not an intended recipient, please delete the original and any copy of this message, and notify the writer by email or telephone.

[Carl]

Fax it using your computer.

Upload it to online storage and send them a link that requires password to download. Send password in separate email or telephone/fax the password.

Secure email e.g. ProtonMail.

When RWS sent me sensitive material, they would always encrypt it and send the password in a separate email.

The possibilities are endless. 

Carl Ranns (Seoul).

[JON JOHANNING]

Thanks to Joe and the other responders. I have an EIN, but they really want the SSN, and I think they are trustworthy about keeping it safe. At least they are hyper-insistent on security themselves according to all of their cautions.

Jon Johanning
jjoha...@igc.org

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[Bo Laurent]

It’s not safe to send by email, even if scanned. You should think of email as if you were sending a postcard. Wildly insecure. And it leaves copies. All over the place.

You can use Dropbox for free. 

You can also use iMessage if both parties have Apple devices. 

Best,

Bo Laurent

[Cliff Bender]

Alternatively, you can use the original point-to-point delivery system called the US mail, even sending it registered if you think it's really necessary.

In any event, once that form is received by whatever supposedly secure or insecure means, encrypted or not, there is no way to prevent the information from being leaked or disseminated by the recipient -- who is inherently being trusted by the sender using the chosen means.

When a new or replacement SSN is issued by the Social Security Administration, it is sent by US mail. When a new credit card is sent by a bank, it is typically sent by US mail. Some Person of Authority somewhere is determining that US mail is a sufficiently secure delivery means. I'm sure that not a few people even deliver their printed 1040 forms to the IRS via US mail.

You could even use Google's 'confidential' email mode -- if you actually believe it is more secure.

Cliff Bender

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