if you are cashing the checks, then they can't get your account info. be careful what you allow to be written on the check though, don't let them write your SS# on it. if you deposit a check, then yes it is possible to get your account info. if noone has contacted you, then you don't know what they bought. i would send the check back myself, with a note to contact you if they wish to purchase something as the only thing you had for sale at that price has been sold.

That's the ones that either get ignored ... ... or I send them junkmailforall22@yahoo.ca. I've had several such. Several telling me that I've won a huge amount in a lottery (usually in the U.K.). Plus well over 100 (at the email address with which I connect to Gardenweb) from "bankers" or other "financial" people wanting help to move multiplied millions from some location (often somewhere in Africa, originally Nigeria) to my bank account ... and usually they offer me 30% or so, plus another 10% allocated for expenses. If I'd accepted each, probably I'd be at least almost a bilionaire, by now! How would I ever manage to know how to manage such an amount of money? Plus - I've had a number asking that I be their company's rep here, to collect money from their customers for them and forward it ... less my 10%. I haven't decided what they're up to ... maybe have people send phony money transfers, and then after I've sent money, finding that the original paper was scrap. Or maybe into laundering money. I hope they you all have an enjoyable spring weekend. ole joyful

I've actually had a similar idea to yours cynic, but with a slight change that might actually make the solution workable. Whenever a call is received, the recipient has the option of hanging up and dialing similar to *69 (I'll call it *96) which would cause some amount (say 50 cents) to be added to the callers bill, and that amount would be credited to the recipient's bill. Think about it. You've just got a call from 'Bridget at card services" or from "Microsoft" or from some annoying survey or from the opposing political party regarding their reprehensible candidate, and rather than merely hanging up and walking away silently fuming (like I did moments ago in the middle of writing this message) Instead imagine hanging up, dialing *96 and walking away slightly smirking because you've actually affected the annoying caller, and your phone bill will be slightly smaller this month. Imagine the smile when you think, "Five more of them, and this month is free!" The details of the plan would need some careful thought to avoid creating a new mode of abuse wherein some scammer calls you leaving a message saying "Its an emergency, call me back at this number ASAP" and then when you do, they *96 you and garner 50 cents from you. Maybe each caller gets a handful of *96 calls in a given month before they are debited. Or perhaps the caller is notified that the recipient has done a *96, and the caller has the option of dialing *97 and negating the charge back, but only a couple of times a month. It would take decision at the Federal level to force the phone companies to implement this, since I'm sure they'll fight it tooth and nail. Furthermore the telemarketing industry will surely claim it would affect their business, and jobs of all the poor schlubs they employ, but ... duh, that's the entire point of the measure. The one issue I see with the measure is that it would be so effective, that perhaps within a year of being implemented, the need for it and the use of it would drop to near zero. (Note if a lawmaker reads this and wants to implement this scheme, I'll gladly license the design for a meager 1/100th of a cent per call that is *96'ed :-)

Don't tremble (or worse, get angry) when your phone rings with an unknown caller ID or let all such calls go to voicemail. Doing that is allowing yourself to be emotionally victimized. don't let that happen. For me, more often than not, such calls are real. Elmer, all I can say to the last sentence of that is "Lucky you." I mostly stopped answering the phone when 19 calls out of 20 were obvious fraud. Like "Microsoft" or "Social Security" calling because they "detected fraud on your account." My phone service has gotten better about flagging things as spam, or valid number. I will pick up when it is a valid number, if I'm expecting the call, or it's from someone in my contacts. Otherwise, no. It's not that I'm living in fear; it's that I'm avoiding annoyance. But my workplace encourages paranoia. We've had more training on phishing and other targeted attacks than you can shake a stick at.