The Owl Flies at Midnight: Another Employment Verification Option

The questions about screening never end, and sometimes my clients give me fantastic ideas. For instance, the following client proposed a new way for me to screen clients via employment info, without asking them to send emails from their work email account:

Good afternoon Annie. I love all the information you are providing. Your blog is a valuable resources for those who have little to no experience, such as myself.

While I find your email verification idea promising, do you think one would find it acceptable to send an email to a clients work address then at which time the individual could in turn copy said contents of the email and respond with the message from their personal email. The reason being, some businesses track the majority of their emails and by responding to the email being sent to the their work address could sacrifice anonymity for the client.

Thank you in advance for any reply. You are fantastic.

Here’s my reply:

So, if I’m understanding you correctly, what you mean is that the escort would send an email to ClientsName@clientsemployer.com that said something like this:

Hi there,

The owl flies at midnight.

Thanks!

Then, instead of emailing her back from your work email (ClientsName@ClientsEmployer.com), you would use your regular personal email account to send her a message that looks something like this:

Dear Escort’sName,

I got your email at my work account. The message it contained was “The owl flies at midnight.”

Hope to hear from you soon,
Client’sName

This would mean that:

1. Because you were able to tell her the unique, un-guessable message her email contained, the escort would know that you have access to that account, so therefore you must be the real Daniel Lastname, and




2. You did this without responding to her from your work account, so there was never a back-and-forth email conversation going through your employer’s server. That way, if your employer is monitoring your email conversations, you can always say, “Yeah, I got that weird email, but I didn’t know what it was about and I didn’t recognize the name of the person who sent it, so I just ignored it. You mean that was a female escort??? Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle!!! What did she want with me?!? I’ve never contacted an escort in my life! Shoot, I didn’t even know they existed! I thought they were a myth! Like unicorns and Santa Claus and politicians with integrity!!” etc. etc. etc.

Yes, this type of loophole would work for me. And what a creative solution it is!