I hate to give anyone bad ideas, but if you accept checks
 

What is preventing people from taking a check they receive from someone else and using it to sign up with? I know of webmasters who have had this problem in the past, just wondering if there is any safeguards in place now that prevent it?

Hmm, please explain the process in great detail :)

Yeah....... not a new idea. It's called check fraud. It's been around awhile.

So they steal your checks and sign up to?

they use your check you gave them as payment for something, and get the information off it to signup for a program that takes checks, all they need is bank routing info, and account number, which is all on the check, which you get charged for

Yup, pretty much like "LOL" said, of course it is illegal and a scam, but of course there are people out there that do it. I'm just wondering how big of a problem it is?

do you mean taking the check numbers at the bottom and signing up to your own sponsor to make more money with their bank???

No, I mean a surfer selling something on Ebay for example, taking that persons check and signing up for a site. That person sees the charge and wonders what is going on and calls their bank to reverse the charge, in the meantime the site/program lost money in more ways than one.