# Not all gel-ink is created equal!

An episode of [Let's Talk About Scams](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1797340531), 19 May 2026, 16 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75413420/let_s_talk_about_scams_05_19_2026.mp3

Who knew, not all gel-ink is created equally! Listen in while we discuss a test on three different gel-ink pens and two different solutions. Which gel-ink pen passed the test? Let’s Talk About Scams is broadcast live Tuesdays at 8AM PT on K4HD Radio - Hollywood Talk Radio (www.k4hd.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Let’s Talk About Scams TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com). Let’s Talk About Scams Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets. Disclaimer: The information contained in this podcast is intended for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for individual professional / legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled from vetted sources and references; however, R.O.S.E. Resources / Outreach to Safeguard the Elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim to a scam. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/let-s-talk-about-scams--6483699/support.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: This program is designed to provide general information with regards
[0:04] Speaker 1: to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
[0:07] Speaker 1: the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station
[0:12] Speaker 1: are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal, counseling,
[0:19] Speaker 1: professional service, or any advice.
[0:21] Speaker 2: You should seek the services of.
[0:23] Speaker 1: Competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas. The
[0:30] Speaker 1: information contained in this podcast is intended for informational purposes
[0:34] Speaker 1: only and is not a substitute for individual professional legal advice.
[0:38] Speaker 1: The podcast information was carefully compiled from vetted sources and references. However,
[0:43] Speaker 1: Rose Resources' outreach to safeguard the elderly cannot guarantee that
[0:46] Speaker 1: you will not fall victim to a scam. Let's talk
[0:50] Speaker 1: about scams. It's the must-listen show for anyone who wants
[0:55] Speaker 1: to protect themselves and their loved ones from scams. Every
[0:59] Speaker 1: Tuesday at 8 a.m. Pacific time on K4HD radio, Joyce
[1:03] Speaker 1: Petrowski founder of Rose and her guests will provide valuable
[1:08] Speaker 1: insights and practical tips on how to recognize and protect
[1:13] Speaker 1: yourself from scams. And now here is your host Joyce Petrowski.
[1:18] Speaker 2: Hi everyone. Welcome back.
[1:21] Speaker 3: Um, Joyce Petrowski founder and board president of Rose resources
[1:24] Speaker 3: outreach to safeguard the elderly. Um, You can find more
[1:28] Speaker 3: information on our website, roseadvocacy.org. You'll find all of our
[1:32] Speaker 3: social media links right at the top of the homepage.
[1:35] Speaker 3: Interested in scheduling us to come out and do a presentation?
[1:38] Speaker 3: We've got a button called Schedule Your Presentation and Learn More.
[1:42] Speaker 3: We've been adding some new and different programs to it.
[1:48] Speaker 3: And if you scroll down to the bottom of the homepage,
[1:50] Speaker 3: you will also find where you can sign up for
[1:53] Speaker 3: our newsletters. We send one in the mail and we
[1:56] Speaker 3: also do one via email. The emailed one, the great
[1:59] Speaker 3: thing about it is every Tuesday morning, which is this
[2:02] Speaker 3: morning at 9.15 a.m. Arizona time, you're going to get
[2:07] Speaker 3: a tip Tuesday. And you might already know the tip,
[2:12] Speaker 3: but what it does is it helps reinforce your healthy
[2:15] Speaker 3: skepticism and your scam prevention habits, which unfortunately we're in
[2:19] Speaker 3: a world today where we need that reoccurring.
[2:22] Speaker 2: We need to hear things, see things, say things.
[2:27] Speaker 3: Multiple, multiple times on a reoccurring basis in order to
[2:30] Speaker 3: make those scam prevention tools a habit.
[2:34] Speaker 2: So after last week's episode, a.
[2:39] Speaker 3: Viewer had wrote in and left a comment that they
[2:42] Speaker 3: heard that the gel ink pens were not good to
[2:49] Speaker 3: prevent against checkwashing. And so it's the first time I
[2:54] Speaker 3: had heard of that. So I did a little research
[2:56] Speaker 3: on it. And I found this really great article that
[3:02] Speaker 3: talked about a test that was run. And I am
[3:05] Speaker 3: going to share my screen so we can go through that.
[3:10] Speaker 2: Just one second here. All right.
[3:17] Speaker 3: So this is the article that I found. If you
[3:21] Speaker 3: want to go to it, it actually has a little
[3:25] Speaker 3: video of a YouTuber, Rob's Homemade Life, actually went through
[3:32] Speaker 3: this with a couple different solutions and different gel ink pens.
[3:37] Speaker 3: We're not going to watch the video, but we're going
[3:38] Speaker 3: to go through what it says. So Let's see. Where's
[3:51] Speaker 3: this at here? So check washing. So the goal of
[4:01] Speaker 3: check washing is someone gets a hold of a check
[4:03] Speaker 3: that you've written. And let's just say that you wrote
[4:08] Speaker 3: a check.
[4:08] Speaker 2: Out to give as a gift to someone. Someone, family member, friend, whoever.
[4:16] Speaker 3: And a lot of people these days do their banking
[4:21] Speaker 3: on their phones. They'll deposit their checks on their phones.
[4:24] Speaker 3: They pull up their banking app. They go into the deposit.
[4:28] Speaker 3: They take a picture of the check. I would imagine
[4:32] Speaker 3: front and back of it.
[4:33] Speaker 2: I don't do this.
[4:34] Speaker 3: So anyways, they take a picture of it and it
[4:40] Speaker 3: gets deposited into their account.
[4:42] Speaker 2: But then what happens to that check?
[4:44] Speaker 3: You know, hopefully they put it away in a file
[4:47] Speaker 3: or they write void on it, um, or they, you know,
[4:50] Speaker 3: rip it, shred it.
[4:51] Speaker 2: Somehow, you know, to make it safe.
[4:54] Speaker 3: But sometimes, you know, you just don't know what happens
[4:57] Speaker 3: to that check or let's say, um, uh, a criminal intercepts,
[5:02] Speaker 3: you know, your mail and there's a, there's a check
[5:05] Speaker 3: in an envelope and they get it that way. There's
[5:07] Speaker 3: different ways they can get the checks, but they're in essence, um,
[5:12] Speaker 3: using a chemical solution to erase the ink off of
[5:18] Speaker 3: the checks. Now, what they've also been doing is putting
[5:23] Speaker 3: tape of some sort on the signature so that keeps
[5:27] Speaker 3: the signature intact, but they wash all the other ink off.
[5:31] Speaker 3: So they could wash the amount, the date, sometimes the
[5:35] Speaker 3: signature if they don't put the tape on it, but
[5:37] Speaker 3: the pay to the order of. to get the ink
[5:41] Speaker 3: off of there, and then they can rewrite the check
[5:44] Speaker 3: to their benefit. And this can have devastating effects on
[5:49] Speaker 3: the people who are the victims. So this YouTuber, Rob,
[5:56] Speaker 3: went through a test to test some of the three
[6:02] Speaker 3: different gel ink pens. So let's see here. Well, before
[6:11] Speaker 3: we start that, I was just reading this, that banks
[6:14] Speaker 3: fight check washers by printing checks using inks that degrade
[6:18] Speaker 3: when they're exposed to the chemicals, which renders the check
[6:22] Speaker 3: useless after being treated. But not all checks are produced
[6:25] Speaker 3: that way because individuals and businesses can purchase their checks
[6:30] Speaker 3: through a variety of vendors outside of the bank.
[6:35] Speaker 2: So that's one way that banks help prevent against it.
[6:38] Speaker 3: But this YouTuber, Rob, He put a Pilot G2, he
[6:43] Speaker 3: put a standard click ballpoint pen, and then he also
[6:51] Speaker 3: put a Uniball 207 pen against two different solutions. And
[6:56] Speaker 3: the one thing I really like about this test that
[6:58] Speaker 3: was done is he just called the first one solution A,
[7:01] Speaker 3: the second one solution B. He didn't give away the
[7:03] Speaker 3: details as to what was in those solutions. But let's
[7:08] Speaker 3: look at the Pilot G2. basically the ink was washed
[7:14] Speaker 3: off by solution B and it faded under solution A.
[7:19] Speaker 3: The standard click ballpoint pen or ink faded under both
[7:24] Speaker 3: of the solutions. The ink wasn't completely washed away, but
[7:28] Speaker 3: it was faded. But the Uniball pens, the Uniball 207,
[7:32] Speaker 3: the ink didn't budge under either of those chemicals.
[7:38] Speaker 2: So That was the winner out of those three.
[7:42] Speaker 3: So the most important thing to remember here is that
[7:45] Speaker 3: not all gel pens are created equally and not all
[7:52] Speaker 3: gel pens will be able to withstand these different chemical solutions.
[7:59] Speaker 3: and keep the ink intact on the check. So if
[8:03] Speaker 3: at all possible, when you are writing checks, try to
[8:07] Speaker 3: get a Uniball 207.
[8:09] Speaker 2: I know that's what we actually give out in our presentations.
[8:15] Speaker 3: Everybody that attends our presentations, we give a Uniball 207
[8:19] Speaker 3: pen out to them. You can get them very easily
[8:24] Speaker 3: on Amazon. You can go to any, you know, office store,
[8:27] Speaker 3: you can buy them there as well. But let's go
[8:32] Speaker 3: down to this. The bottom of the article just talks
[8:42] Speaker 3: about some other different things that you should do, like
[8:46] Speaker 3: using the blue post office box and things like that.
[8:49] Speaker 2: But I want to go.
[8:50] Speaker 3: To our resource packet. So here's our resource packet that
[8:54] Speaker 3: we give out to every attendee in our presentation. This
[8:59] Speaker 3: is page 10, which talks about check washing and check writing.
[9:04] Speaker 3: There's two different things. So, um, you know, we say
[9:08] Speaker 3: use that gel pen, um, probably on our next update
[9:12] Speaker 3: where we might, uh, specific, specifically say the Uniball 207,
[9:18] Speaker 3: the ink's harder to remove, but drop the mail inside,
[9:23] Speaker 3: inside the post office, um, Or if you're using those
[9:27] Speaker 3: blue post office boxes at the post office, use them
[9:32] Speaker 3: before the last pickup of the day. So you know
[9:35] Speaker 3: that your mail that's in there is going to get
[9:38] Speaker 3: taken out during one of the pickups during the day.
[9:42] Speaker 2: So it's not going to get left overnight.
[9:45] Speaker 3: You don't want to leave checks in your mailbox, collecting
[9:49] Speaker 3: your mail daily. If you're going to be on vacation,
[9:52] Speaker 3: put a hold on your mail so it doesn't accumulate
[9:55] Speaker 3: in your mailbox.
[9:57] Speaker 2: When you're writing the name of the payee.
[9:59] Speaker 3: Try to avoid initials because those initials could stand for
[10:03] Speaker 3: a variety of different things. If you have old or
[10:06] Speaker 3: unused checks, make sure you shred those or safely discard
[10:12] Speaker 3: them instead of just throwing them away for anybody to
[10:17] Speaker 3: get a hold of. and reviewing your bank statements. You
[10:21] Speaker 3: can also put alerts on your bank account, but this
[10:24] Speaker 3: check writing, this is something that's different. It doesn't deal
[10:28] Speaker 3: with the ink on the checks, but what it is
[10:35] Speaker 3: is where the scammers, the criminals are actually making duplicate checks.
[10:41] Speaker 2: Off of your account.
[10:43] Speaker 3: And they've been doing this for a long time because
[10:46] Speaker 3: every check includes the bank routing number and your account number.
[10:51] Speaker 3: Now the bank's routing number is public information. You can
[10:54] Speaker 3: just Google what is Wells Fargo routing number for ACHs
[10:57] Speaker 3: or for wire transfers, and it's going to pop up.
[11:00] Speaker 3: It's public information, but your account number is not, but
[11:04] Speaker 3: it's on the bottom of every check. So in essence,
[11:07] Speaker 3: it does then become more public information. So just, you know,
[11:16] Speaker 3: If you're giving somebody a check in person and you're
[11:19] Speaker 3: not sure how they're going to deposit it, maybe ask them.
[11:23] Speaker 3: And if they're going to do it over their phone,
[11:25] Speaker 3: ask them if they can just deposit it and then
[11:28] Speaker 3: you can take it with you for safekeeping. Or just
[11:33] Speaker 3: be very careful on how many checks you write. Maybe
[11:37] Speaker 3: do more through online banking so then the bank is
[11:40] Speaker 3: actually printing the checks out and sending them So you're
[11:46] Speaker 3: not having to write the checks. So a couple other
[11:53] Speaker 3: things here. You never want to sign a blank or
[11:56] Speaker 3: incomplete check. Only give checks to trusted people or businesses.
[12:02] Speaker 3: Set up the bank alerts so you can get notified
[12:04] Speaker 3: of activity. Always use your two-factor authentication. And if you
[12:10] Speaker 3: receive a suspicious check, And this happens a lot with scammers.
[12:14] Speaker 3: They actually, in a wide variety of cases, they will
[12:17] Speaker 3: send you a check. And they'll say, well, just deposit
[12:20] Speaker 3: it and send me this much back. And it might
[12:25] Speaker 3: take a day or two for your bank to realize
[12:27] Speaker 3: that's a fraudulent check, but you've already sent the money,
[12:32] Speaker 3: some or all of the money back to scammers. the scammer.
[12:38] Speaker 3: And the next day you find out that check was
[12:40] Speaker 3: no good. So you're actually out the money. So just
[12:43] Speaker 3: be careful of that as well. And go back up
[12:47] Speaker 3: to the, you know, when you're using those blue post
[12:49] Speaker 3: office boxes, just make sure you're using them at the
[12:52] Speaker 3: post office. And I've even noticed that the post office
[12:57] Speaker 3: I go to, they've taken the ones outside the post
[13:00] Speaker 3: office away, except for there's one left in the drive-through area.
[13:05] Speaker 3: But if you're walking, if you get out of your
[13:09] Speaker 3: car and go, you actually have to go into the
[13:11] Speaker 3: post office and deposit your mail that way.
[13:14] Speaker 2: It's just a deterrent.
[13:16] Speaker 3: Because if someone's going to break into those blue post
[13:19] Speaker 3: office boxes, they're going to find ones that are just
[13:21] Speaker 3: sitting by themselves on the sidewalk. It's a deterrent to
[13:25] Speaker 3: actually go to the actual post office and break into
[13:30] Speaker 3: one of those. There's cameras all over the place. So
[13:32] Speaker 3: just be very careful if you are mailing... something that
[13:36] Speaker 3: has a check in it, has a gift card in it,
[13:39] Speaker 3: sensitive personal information, you're going to want to make sure
[13:42] Speaker 3: you take it inside the post office and put it
[13:46] Speaker 3: in the outgoing mail that way.
[13:50] Speaker 2: So that is all I have today. I'm going to
[13:55] Speaker 2: stop sharing here.
[13:57] Speaker 3: This was a really short one, 15 minutes, but.
[14:01] Speaker 2: It was very important.
[14:02] Speaker 3: And so if you If you have any other tips
[14:06] Speaker 3: or things that you hear about that you're not sure about,
[14:08] Speaker 3: send us a message. We love to get those messages
[14:12] Speaker 3: because then we can create a show around it. So
[14:16] Speaker 3: just remember with the gel ink pens, if you want
[14:21] Speaker 3: to be safe, according to this YouTuber Rob that did
[14:25] Speaker 3: this test, he determined out of those three that were used, Ballpoint, ClickBallpoint,
[14:32] Speaker 3: the Pilot, and then the Uniball 207 that you use
[14:36] Speaker 3: the Uniball 207. You can find them in a variety
[14:38] Speaker 3: of different places. Come to one of our presentations. Get
[14:43] Speaker 3: one scheduled and have us come out, and you'll get
[14:45] Speaker 3: one for free at the presentation along with everybody else there.
[14:50] Speaker 3: Clip it right to your checkbook. That way you have
[14:52] Speaker 3: it right there every time you want to go write
[14:54] Speaker 3: a check.
[14:55] Speaker 2: All right.
[14:56] Speaker 3: Don't forget to visit our website, roseadvocacy.org. Scroll down to
[15:00] Speaker 3: the bottom. Sign up for our newsletters to get that
[15:03] Speaker 3: reoccurring scam information And you'll find our social media links.
[15:07] Speaker 3: We are really trying hard to grow our YouTube page.
[15:11] Speaker 3: And you can go to the YouTube, I should say
[15:13] Speaker 3: the YouTube channel. And you can find all of our
[15:17] Speaker 3: past episodes along with the shorts. And you can find
[15:21] Speaker 3: some other videos there too. But click subscribe so you
[15:24] Speaker 3: get notified whenever there's a new video upcoming or maybe
[15:28] Speaker 3: that just dropped on there. Next week, Brian Watson is
[15:33] Speaker 3: going to be here. So I'm not quite sure what
[15:36] Speaker 3: he has ready for you guys, but I'm sure you'll
[15:39] Speaker 3: enjoy it. And I will see you guys back here
[15:41] Speaker 3: in a couple of weeks.
[15:42] Speaker 2: Thank you.
[15:44] Speaker 1: Well, that's all the knowledge for this episode. Tune in
[15:47] Speaker 1: every Tuesday at 8 a.m. Pacific time on K4HD Radio
[15:51] Speaker 1: at K4HD. com as Joyce explores a variety of knowledge so
[15:56] Speaker 1: you have the power to make scam protection your healthy habit.
[16:01] Speaker 1: And until then, feel free to reach out to Joyce
[16:04] Speaker 1: and let's talk about scams.

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