There is only two sure fire ways to not get took.
1st
If you give your bank account routing number and account number to anyone you better know 10000000% they are honest. You just gave them the method and the authority to wipe out your bank account completely. The only other number they need is to find out what the last check you cashed number is. Easy to get. I got ripped for several, thousand dollrs years ago by electronic check withdrawals overnight.
The way to protect against this has alredy been told. Open up a piggyback separate account with a minimum deposit and use that to receive bank to bank transfers. That is how many of my out of town customers pay me.
Or if you trust Pay Pall you can do that too. That is another way my out of town customers pay me and PayPal processes credit cards so you can take payment by card too.
US Postal Money Orders are still good as gold. You can get those up to $1,000 each.
Any other money order, cashier's check or personal check, most banks now, at least here will not pay you on for appx 10 dfays to 2 weeks until they are finally cleared and are certified as good.
Too many banks and bank customers have been burned on the cashiers check scam and are scared to accept them at face value now. The thieves ahve gotten so good that even when the bank calls to verify the cashier's check and it is good, later the check comes back as not accepted and the bank bills your account for the amount. That is even after they first accepted it. You are the one that gets hung, not the bank.
I refuse even cashier's checks. Takes me too long to get paid.
A Bank Draft is another sure fire way to accept paymnet for a car too. Talk with your banker about how a bank draft works. Car dealers many times pay by method of a bank draft.
Ed