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Comment by ChrisNorstrom | Hacker News Reader

I sold RebelSpirits.com for $500 to a winery business owner last year. We scanned and emailed each other our drivers licenses and he sent a check for $500 in the mail. I released the domain to him after I deposited the check. His check was from a major bank.

Can some one tell me if my method was smart or stupid? What could have gone wrong other than check fraud?

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If someone had stolen ID _and_ checkbook, it might not have been the person you thought you were dealing with. I don't know if you looked into the winery / called it or whatever, but I'd have wanted some way to establish with fair certainty who I was dealing with beforehand. ( and probably would have accepted a check like you did given the amount. )

A surprising number of people don't know a check can be pulled back out of your account weeks after the deposit. Paypal or credit cards aren't much better. So far as I know using escrow, wire transfer or bank draft are the only "sure" ways payment can't be revoked

I thought wires can be rewound too?

I think ( but don't know for certain ) that they can be reversed until the receiving bank disperses the funds. I imagine if you're dealing with enough zeros, all bets are off though.

I'd be interested in a "for sure" answer if anyone knows for certain.

Bitcoin is exceedingly unlikely to be reversed after 6 confirmations (45 minutes or so).

Good point. Dinna think about BC

(Read my other comments this is what I do).

RebelSpirits.com for $500 - it's worth more than that. The winery got away cheap. Did they approach you? If so you left money on the table.

"We scanned and emailed each other our drivers licenses and he sent a check for $500 in the mail."

Use escrow.com for this. Cheap and protects both parties. This is what they do and everyone uses them.

May have been more dangerous for him than for you. An unscrupulous person could have just deposited the check and not transferred the domain.

Using escrow.com avoids these trust issues for both the buyer and seller. I have had a good experience using them for several domain transactions.

If I were him, I don't think I would have particularly liked sending someone a copy of my ID and a check with my bank account and routing numbers on them.

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