In fact, it is often fatal. Even on plain paper, faxed resumes look awful and are awkward to handle. Whenever possible, try to avoid sending yours by fax. A recruiter who spends 30 seconds in scanning a mailed resume, will only have 15 seconds of patience with a faxed one. In order to fax it to a recruiter quickly, you will ruin your first impression the laser printing and high quality resume paper you should always use.
Speed is only necessary for junior-level vacancies which can be filled almost immediately.
Anything important should jump out at the reader. Attention-getters such as borders, bullets, bolds and underlines are also more important in a faxed resume. But many resumes contain 20-50 of them. By highlighting so many lines, you will FAIL to draw attention to ANY line. Use them sparingly but wisely.