Gel Pens and checks

Well folks, just got back from Wal-mart where I bought a package of Uni-ball pens. According to fraud prevention sites on the internet, they can help prevent check fraud. The pens are sold at other stores, Target, Kmart, Walgreens, etc. but Wal-mart is the nearest to me.

FROM THE NATIONAL CHECK FRAUD CENTER:
http://www.ckfraud.org/washing.html

Criminals rely on our mistakes to make their job easier. Taking a few precautions will make you less attractive to predators. Don’t leave mail in your mailbox overnight or over the weekend. Thieves wait for that red flag to go up to score an outgoing check or other personal information.

WHAT TYPE OF PEN TO USE WHEN WRITING A CHECK:

If you are a ballpoint pen lover, switch to black ink when security is important. Among water-based inks, remember that gels are the most impervious. But when you're writing checks to pay the monthly bills, only one type of ink, the kind in gel pens, has been found to be counterfeit proof to acetone or any other chemical used in "check washing." Most ballpoint and marker inks are dye based, meaning that the pigments are dissolved in the ink.

Based on recent ink security studies, we highly recommend that you use a gel pen, like the Uniball 207 that uses gel ink that contains tiny particles of color that are trapped into the paper, making check washing a lot more difficult. The pen sells for about $2.