For all those who tune in to the "checks are so 19th century" tune: please note this is a good story about check fraud, as the OP eventually got his money back.
With Paypal/Venmo/app-du-jour, in the event of an account takeover, the result might be different.
Check fraud is an old problem — as old as the checks themselves — and it's a problem well understood by the banks, the police, investigators, and judges. On the other hand, good luck explaining the police such obscure technical details as "they installed a proxy on my IP" or "they sim-swapped me to intercept the one-time password".
On another note, checks charge 0% commission: to pay someone $5, you need $5.
With Paypal/Venmo/app-du-jour, in the event of an account takeover, the result might be different.
Check fraud is an old problem — as old as the checks themselves — and it's a problem well understood by the banks, the police, investigators, and judges. On the other hand, good luck explaining the police such obscure technical details as "they installed a proxy on my IP" or "they sim-swapped me to intercept the one-time password".
On another note, checks charge 0% commission: to pay someone $5, you need $5.