I received a call from a woman who needed "something" notarized. I told her I could not get to it and recommended she go to the UPS Store. She told me she had already been there and was told they could not do it.
She had an I-9 she needed it stamped, but it also had a standalone certificate with it that said (paraphrased):
"I, __notary name___, viewed the documents checked on the I-9 and certify the information on the documents is as follows: SS#___, DL#____ [plus more NPPI]."
There was a line for the notary to sign and a place his/her seal, expiration date, and printed name. The I-9 was also supposed to be stamped by the notary to show proof a notary had completed it.
In other words, there was neither a proper certificate nor were these requests authorized duties of Texas notaries.
She said the I-9 was required to be able to telecommute for a medical coding company out of Florida. Honestly, she sounded so confused about everything that I questioned (to myself) if the company was legit or just trying to get NPPI from her in a work-from-home scam, or worse, a notarial seal from Texas to also use in a scam. (Paranoid much? Yep. This one just didn't sound right.) Also, since the company was supposedly out of Florida, I felt like the company would likely know that notaries generally could not do this.
This poor woman was desperate for me to help her. I tried several times to explain that I just couldn't do it like it was and that the UPS Store was right, based on what she said--they could not notarize it either.
I suggested she call the medical coding company and explain the dilemma. “Tell them that a Texas notary can’t just stamp this I-9 or stamp and certify the information under her own signature. Tell them to look at the Secretary of State's website. This isn't an authorized duty of a person acting as a notary public." (I did send her via email the link regarding the SOS's statement.)
I even told her to have them call me if they wanted me to explain it to them. She was so insistent that I do this for her, or figure out how to make it so that I COULD do it, that I basically had to hang up with her talking. I didn't receive a call from the company, either.
The point of this post is that notaries can't just do anything that’s asked of them. You can’t fill out, stamp, and sign a document certifying information that another person hasn't signed or acknowledged/sworn/affirmed (except maybe in Pa. under certain circumstances, if I remember correctly—check the rules, don’t take my word for it).
No notary can just apply a stamp to a document to make it more legit.
It's been a long time since we discussed this topic--not I-9s**, but malformed certificates or requests that require the notary to do something he or she is not authorized to do.
If you are a new notary, check your authorized duties so you know what you can and can’t do. I’m pretty impressed that my local UPS’s notaries were on top of it.
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(*except when certifying copies of non-recordable documents)
(** I am aware that some states say notaries cannot do I-9s, there's no new debate here about that.)
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If this is loaded with errors, please forgive me. I'm taking muscle relaxers for a pinched nerve. I didn't want to forget to share this in case new readers are getting hit with similar requests.
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