Etsy has your email address, why would they ask the buyer for it? A random check for what?
It's not even a good lie.
What these scammers and thieves really want your email address for is to steal from you. Once they have your email, they will send you a FAKE Etsy email claiming to be from Etsy Support that says you need to do X in order to claim your payment. There is usually a link you need to click that takes you to a spoofed and very fake Etsy page. Then they proceed to get your login info, your bank info, your card info. They will even ask about your bank balance, and tell you that you need to keep a higher balance it order to maintain an Etsy shop. Total BS, but by that point you believe it. In truth, they want you to put more money in your account so there is more to steal. The thieves like their minimum theft to be $600+, they don't want your measly $147.40. Once you've done that they empty your bank account, use your card for fraudulent purchases, and use your login to take over your Etsy shop. Once they have control of your Etsy shop, they can run more fraud through it too. There are even cases where they ask sellers to give them control of their computers in order to "fix" something in their Etsy shop.
Best basic protection:
Be wary of requests for your email or phone #.
Do not take the conversation off Etsy.
Don't click on links.
