I don't know if all the checks are the same, but the check that my wife recieved from the Advance Consumer Research came from TD Banknorth. My wife took it to a teller at our local branch of TD Banknorth, and the teller told her it was a fake. In addition, She was told to buy any item at C&A stores. C&A is a European discount clothing chain. There is no possible way that one can make a purchase from this store. I'll be contacting my state's attorney general's office tomorrow to verify this.