Check demand drafts, or "drafting" funds from a second party's checking account, have been a method of payment for more than 10 years.

Fax, E-Mail, and Telephone checks (pre-authorized paper bank drafts) are completely legal. It makes no more sense for a bank to refuse to honor a draft as to refuse any other check.

The primary requirement is that the checking account holder ("you") must give verbal, electronic, or written pre-authorization, such as faxing the check or clicking an authorization box on a web form. Once you have given pre-authorization, a signature on the paper-draft is not required, just as you don't need a signature on a phoned in credit card order.

Paper drafts are explicitly established as a legal method for payment
as provided in: Uniform Commercial Code, Title 1, Section 1-201 [39]
and Title 3, Sections 3-104, 3-403, 2-403 Code of Federal Regulations,
Title 12 Chapter II, Part 210 Regulation J, Federal Reserve Bank, Part 2, Sections 4a-201 to 4a-212.

The Federal Trade Commission in late 1995 proposed new rules that became law in January 1996 (Regulation 16CFR Part 310) that requires all businesses who take checks over the phone to have a "verification" procedure in place.