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Joking About Giving Money To ISIS Can Cost You Money (arstechnica.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-to-lose-money-and-other-curious-ideas dept.

Reader rudy_wayne writes: A person who was using Venmo, an app that allows people to send money to each other via their phones, sent $42 to repay a friend, and jokingly labelled it "ISIS Beer Fund". He immediately got an e-mail from Venmo questioning the purpose of the money. Although he tried to explain "The $42 was payment to a dear friend for two pitchers of Samuel Adams Boston Lager" he was informed "Due to OFAC regulations, we are not allowed to give the funds back to you or issue a refund." The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control is a 54-year-old institution, quietly working to keep money out of the hands of America's enemies.From the report, "It turns out -- shockingly -- this isn't the first time someone's Venmo transaction was cut off at the knees with a reference to subjects that are a matter of national security. Venmo won't explicitly say what words will trigger blockage, Gawker pointed out in October.

6 of 321 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Did you expect a different result? ~nt~ by the_skywise · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah they probably memo that as "Payment to a dear friend for two pitchers of Samuel Adams Boston Lager"

    And the Department of Financial Security Monitoring (comrade) goes "Oh that's so nice - we approve of that".

  2. Re:Did you expect a different result? ~nt~ by Shoten · · Score: 3, Funny

    Meanwhile, terrorists are smart enough not to label a money transfer as ISIS BOMB FUNDING.

    Actually, not all of them are. Just the ones that are around long enough to be noticed by anyone besides the people that hunt them.

    Remember, terrorists are not super-human. Just like everyone else, 50% of them have a double-digit IQ.

    --

    For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
  3. Re:What's in a name? by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 4, Funny

    I have an ISIS flag on one side of my house, a Pakistani one on the other, and an al Qaeda sign over the door. I live in a bad neigbourhood, but never have to worry about it because my place is watched by the CIA, the NSA, the Secret Service, the DHS, and the ATF.

  4. He should have labeled it by TheMadTopher · · Score: 4, Funny

    for the Panamanian tax evasion account. They let that through automatically.

  5. Obligatory MIB reference by green1 · · Score: 3, Funny

    "No ma'am, we at the FBI do not have a sense of humor we're aware of."

  6. Re:Did you expect a different result? ~nt~ by Swave+An+deBwoner · · Score: 3, Funny

    Unless they are from Lake Wobegon in which case they are all above average.