If I send someone my name, email, address, phone number, and bank name on a suspicious website, are they able to use that information to forge a check?
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Why are you asking? Sounds like there's some underlying concern there. If you have to ask whether something is a scam - the rule of thumb is to assume that it is.– littleadvCommented Dec 3 at 23:34
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2 Answers
I would say the answer to this is "no". The two critical parts of the check are the account number and routing number. If they don't have your account number, then they are missing a critical part. Some banks use multiple routing numbers, so they may not have that information either, but they will if your bank does not use multiple routing numbers.
Without that account number, they cannot begin to forge a check.
Additionally they will not have your signature. So if they somehow got your account number by another means, it would probably be easy to dispute.
Maybe. If so, the check shows up in your bank's statements, you complain to the bank that it isn't a check you wrote, they look at the check and the signature and agree that it's fishy, they return your money and contact the bank that cashed the check, and that bank tries to get the money back from the account it was deposited to. Which may leave whoever accepted the check short by that amount, but essentially they accepted stolen money and have no right to keep it.
This is a good illustration of why banks don't just "cash" checks for people who don't have accounts with them, and why you want to be a bit careful about who you accept checks from and for how much. Checks can bounce.
Sign frequently seen when checks were more common: "In God we trust. All others pay cash."
