Sticking with the on-topic questions... In using the model I've outlined above, we can improve the world by making this scam obsolete. This scam will no longer be cost effective after this solution becomes common knowledge, and the scammers will move onto the next scam...

The legal system can't really do much to stop scams. There are still just as many illegal scams as legal scams, if not more. The law doesn't really stop them. The only way to stop scams is to make them no longer cost effective. This is typically done through education ("Don't fall for that. It's a scam."), but some of the oldest scams in the book are still going on, so that's not really doing much either.

Financially crippling the scammers is something I think we should try. A lot of the allure of committing scams is a low risk of loss to make up for the low success rate of most scams. Most people throw these cheques out, but they can make thousands off each person who falls for it, spending mere pennies to send batches of these out. By introducing a new risk that could cost them the face value of the cheque, and then spreading that information, I'm hoping to make this scam obsolete.

But, I can't do this by myself, so if you have a brain, use it. I wouldn't advise trying to scam the scammer back, but figuring out ways to make scams cost more than they bring in is the solution. If you can come up with a way to scam the scammer that works, that can do this. But, if the idea fails, it could end up screwing you just as badly as falling for the scam, possibly even worse.