The New Year, 2020, has gotten off to a great start and it has also raised some interesting questions when it comes to signing important documents. Many of us would typically sign documents this year using the shorthand “20” to represent the year 2020, but this could put you at major risk if you do.
Simply using the “20” when dating will leave your important documents susceptible to someone changing the date. Imagine you sign a legal document with a vendor or someone doing work on your home and you place the date 1/2/20, which seems harmless enough. In truth, this is not a big deal unless an issue arises or someone decides to change the date to read 1/2/2018.
As you can see, it is really simple for someone to change the date you signed the document. All they need to do is add the two numbers at the end and it looks as though the document had been signed years earlier. This could present an opportunity for scammers to utilize this to their advantage.
There is an easy way to protect yourself against this issue. When dating documents, legally binding or otherwise, we would suggest writing out the whole date. In the example above, just write 1/2/2020 and this should insulate you from the majority of issues.
Keep in mind, there are scammers out there that will try to alter dates regardless of how you write them and even doing this may not prevent that. The idea here is to make sure you do what you can in order to minimize the risks to you and your family. Do not take any shortcuts this year when dating documents.
Little things like dating documents are sometimes overlooked. We are here to make sure you are protected as best you can be and that is why we share tips like this. Feel free to contact us with any additional questions you may have on this topic or any others we have written about. We welcome the opportunity to connect and can be reached at (844) 4-MITLIN x12.
Be sure to share this article with friends, family and business acquaintances who might be interested too. We look forward to helping you, and them, get on the right path and stay there.
This article represents the opinion of Mitlin Financial Inc. It should not be construed as providing investment, legal and/or tax advice.
