NEWS: Paying Credit Card Triggers Homeland Security

ahhhhh...another shining example of Fatherland security addressing the serious issues of terrorism...funny how if you step out of your usual routine (obviously they ARE WATCHING) ..WAHMMM, you may be a terrorist but they do little to stem the flow across the mexican boarder.

AND... from reading some of the replies, people think that you should be investigated for POSSIBLE CRIMINAL ACTIVITY for something like this...what?!?!?!?!?!?!?! where's the line??
make a double morgate payment..obviuosly a terrorist..
double or triple car payment..probably a terrorist too
you spent $100 more on groceries than normal...probably feeding terrorists
your paychecks at work suddenly increased....laundering money for terrorists,..obviously
you just bought a new car for more than $5,000, thats alot of $$ moving around..probably a terrorist..
you went and spent 2000 on your credit card in one day...thats ok, you might get a call from the card company but nothing more...

funny how everything is terrorist related butt, they never seem to be able to catch any.......just put more and more limits on what they will let you do
america....land of the scared sheep..........

[edit on 3-3-2006 by clearmind]

That particular transaction was caught under the laws passed relevant to the war on drugs and would have been caught 15 years ago just as quickly as today. Those laws look at any transaction that could signal a sudden increase in income due to drug trafficking or signal an attempt to launder drug related income. The original trigger amount was $10,000 or more, but I think that was changed to be slightly lower. Could be the amount has just been overtaken by inflation and needs to be raised. If you think it is a bad law then work to get it repealed or changed to your liking.

[edit on 4-3-2006 by Astronomer68]

Originally posted by Astronomer68
If you think it is a bad law then work to get it repealed or changed to your liking.

I agree that things are suppose to work the way you describe, but the reality is that things do not work that way.

The citizens of California voted to allow medical marijuana, however the federal government in its infinite wisdom overruled the decision of the people. Once government gains a power, government never relinquishes that power.

Can you give me some examples of citizens being successful in reducing the power of government ?

Well, in the aftermath of the Supreme Court Decision regarding the taking of land from homeowners to give it to other private owners (I think that happened in Connecticut), 23 states, at last count, passed laws forbidding such actions in their states. In California, Proposition 9 (requiring a balanced budget) was passed over government opposition to even let the thing on the ballot. I'm just citing things I can remember off the top of my head, but I'm sure there have been many other cases as well. Oh, let's not forget the 55 mph speed limit law that citizen protests got changed.

[edit on 4-3-2006 by Astronomer68]

Actually, I bleieve what I said was that if someone went from paying $1-200/month on a $3-4,000 credit card or more, then suddenly pays it off they would get investigated. No, I'm not saying this is the same, but it's like if you have a 2nd Lt in the military buying a 5 bedroom house. Where did the money come from? It's the kind of thing that's going to get looked at.

One of the things I do at work is process credit card payments. There is NO POLICY, I repeat NO POLICY that involves contacting homeland security for ANY credit card payment.

I have pretty serious doubts aboutt his story.

My experience involves two financial institutions and one of them went through three mergers (with policy changes in tow) in four years. My experience reaches before and after 911.

There is NO POLICY that states if you pay over the percentage of X.......blah blah blah. NO POLICY!

If, however, you pay in cash and that cash is over $10,000US, that will involve a report to the Secret Service. The Secret Service will perform a routine investigation and unless you are not reporting certain income to the IRS, its no sweat.

Are other media sources carrying this story?

They were told, as they moved up the managerial ladder at the call center, that the amount they had sent in was much larger than their normal monthly payment. And if the increase hits a certain percentage higher than that normal payment, Homeland Security has to be notified. And the money doesn't move until the threat alert is lifted.

I can say with 100% confidence that the above quote is a lie. That policy does NOT exist!

I can assure you with personal experience, the money does indeed move when you make a payment. Banks do NOT put holds on ANY loan payments. If the check bounces, the debt is simply reapplied with fees.

I am curious if JC Penny mastercard has any clue this story is going around.

Does anyone know how to report such information to snopes.com? I *JUST* reported it to snopes.com (a website that investigates urban legends).

We shall see (maybe).

Originally posted by jsobecky

It was originally designed to help law enforcement in the war on drugs, and espionage cases.

Well JS thanks for clarifying the spying law, occurs now we are fighting Terrorism so we all either were selling drugs back in the day and now we are all national security risks.

like I said in another thread US is now a dictatorship drag queen in democratic costumes