(a) No person or corporation shall sell checks as an agent of a principal seller when such principal seller is subject to licensing under this article but has not obtained a license hereunder; and any person who does so shall be deemed to be the principal seller thereof and not merely an agent and shall be liable to the holder or remitter as the principal seller.

(b) No person or corporation, other than a bank or trust company, an agent thereof, a licensee, or an agent of a licensee, shall undertake, in the course of carrying on the business regulated in this article, to receive, transmit, or handle money on behalf of another to whom he issues a money order or a similar payment paper; and any person who does so shall be liable to the owner of the money order or similar payment paper for the payment thereof to the same extent as a drawer of a negotiable instrument, whether or not the money order or similar payment paper is a negotiable instrument under Article 3 (Negotiable Instruments) of Title 11 (Uniform Commercial Code).