Patriot Act monitors your bank account?

A month ago I ignore a letter from one of the banks I use that says they need my SS number for an account I opened maybe, 5 years ago, I mean ya need a SS number to open the frigging thing right?
Yesterday I get this from said bank:

"Several weeks ago, we wrote to you requesting the SS number of the above referenced account. We are required to maintain this informmation and you are required to supply it by law as mandated by the Patriot Act, which was enacted to enhance homeland security in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks."

WTF? Perhaps this is not news to some but I knew nothing about this incursion into banking records and this far reach of the PA.

So, does this mean the Patriot Act supercedes existing banking regulations and requirements?

Look up Title III of the Patriot Act, The International Money Laundering Abatement and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act of 2001, which was essentially a complete overhaul of federal banking law, very creepy stuff.

over similar legislation that was meant to "find drug dealers".

Where are their tongues?

I haven't balanced my checkbook in ages. Maybe they can tell me how much money I have.

One local bank requires a thumbprint if a non-account holder wants to cash a check drawn from them...

So if I sell 50 bucks worth of junk at my local auction...I have to be thumbprinted to cash their check at their bank...

That's a new one...

people happily conforming with this crap

But you can't refuse the thumbprint, can you?

I just give it a little twist!
:)

n/t

for IRS purposes.

go to jail time.

At least that is what I am told.

Seems a bit drastic.

ever wonder why some businesses give you a discount for cash???

Bartering is even better!!

After all they needed it to open the account in the first place no?

TB

Long ago the IRS required the banks to get your SS number to open accounts but you weren't required to give it. If you didn't, they would just withhold tax on any interest you earned on your account which you could reclaim later when you filed your tax return.

Apparently, the Patriot Act goes one step further. What this means is that foreigners and immigrants who have no SS# can be spotted right away and the government can follow the money a little more easily.

Following money is nothing new for the government. Over 20 years ago when I started, they already monitored transactions over $10,000. They are just getting a little more intrusive now. As far as the fingerprinting, I will never submit to it. A bank has no business collecting that kind of data. Fortunately, out here in the boonies, banks don't very often get into that kind of crap. Wouldn't be good for business.

SS numbers for opening accounts, the IRS, and following transactions over $10K have been in place and SOP for as long as I can remember as well.........however as Papau points out, the Patriot Act, now it seems, adds the dimension of making it a crime not to comply......or perhaps even a treasonable offense?

if they are making it a criminal offense. My point was that the snooping was nothing new.

I didn't see anything in the original post quoting a threat of criminal charges resulting from failure to comply. I just assume it means you get reported to big brother.

Afraid there is a very complex, expensive procedure a financial insitution must go through for these NO SS# accounts that results in begging for the number, fines if you did not beg correctly, and auto withholding plus IRS notification of each case (hell - the IRS tells you if the number is invalid).

Pat Act ccould have just restated the above - but why bother?

Seems criminal has been added.

Sounds like a scam. I work for a bank and I've never heard of an account not having a S/S number on it. It's required for cryingoutloud???

I'd check (pardon the pun) into this before I gave out my S/S number.

but the scam being perpetrated is the patriot act.

A follow-up:
I just got back from that bank, they want me to believe their request is legit and claim my SS # went in a data loss. They say the Patriot Act thing is now SOP. It was a marginal account anyway so I closed that sucker with no further ado.

For me, it brings this homeland secuity thing a little closer to home, it's tentacles I feel are tightening.

Oh please. It's on your signature card. That's a bunch of crap.

My pharmacy says they can disburse whatever information they have on file about me and the kids to the Secret Service, to protect the president, etc. ad nauseum under the PA. That part about using it to protect the POS make me ill.