In a generally wealthy democracy, oppressive policies most commonly end only when ordinary middle class people are outraged by them. And that most commonly comes only whey they or someone they know is personally harmed.
Recent Bluessky Posts- Alas what pictures don't capture is the temperature. It will be great in winter though. August 16, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- So many fundraising texts begin, "You won't believe what" X said or did, followed by a URL promising to reveal whatever. Plonk. Either you think I'm a credulous idiot, or I indeed won't believe it, or I will, but in any case I'm not playing. August 15, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- Jotwell.com :> August 15, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- What we need is trusted intermediaries to point out good stuff. August 14, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- It's funny how relatable small stuff, be it pen thieving, reflecting pool shenanigans, firing black seamstresses in order to hire sole source contractors for twice as much money, are the kind of details that stick in the public consciousness with any luck bring down much bigger crooks. Great ad BTW. August 14, 2026 Michael Froomkin
While I certainly believe that the USA PATRIOT Act is an execrable piece of legislation, I’m a bit skeptical about this story. There’s little or no corroboration of the Soehnge’s story. Has JC Penney been contacted by the press for a comment? Were there any other problems with their payment record? A large payment may need to go through extra procedures for any number of reasons, such as verification of funds.
This is how hoaxes propagate. Reporters don’t ask the tough questions that would allow the reader to be more confident of the facts.
Who cares if it’s a hoax? Let’s do away with financial reporting laws. Everytime I move an amount even close to $10,000, the bank gets up in my business. We need to do away with those laws, and I’m happy to have Froomkin on board! Lead the way, my foolish friend!
This smelled like a hoax to me, too, but my wife and I dug out the appropriate bit of the Federal Register where this is discussed.
http://www.fincen.gov/352ccards.pdf
The regulation refers to amendments to the Banking Secrecy Act (not the Bank Privacy Act) made in the USA PATRIOT Act (HR 3162), in section 352 of the bill. Here’s another useful discussion of the topic:
http://www.cyberlaw.com/aml.html
The requirements that the PATRIOT act impose are, as far as I can tell, to extend the BSA reporting requirements to a wider range of financial institutions. It gives the institutions reasonably wide latitude in establishing the parameters of the program which enforces the requirements. It appears that the person in the article either misunderstood the people he spoke to, or encountered an institution which chose a surprisingly aggressive interpretation of the rules.
I’ve written two long debunking posts on this for a mailing list. They can be found at:
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200603/msg00035.html
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200603/msg00041.html
I’ve written two long debunking posts on this for a mailing list. They can be found at:
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200603/msg00035.html
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200603/msg00041.html
I’m with anon regarding financial reporting laws. I just have my doubts about the veracity and/or verifiability of the story in question.
Seth Finkelstein’s link says:
1) Sending in payment far in excess of the normal monthly payment will
raise a fraud flag, purely as the private, free-market, choice of the
credit-card business.
I don’t follow this. I know that trying to SPEND too much money can be fraud, but how can you defraud a credit card company (or anyone, for that matter) by paying them?
How can you defraud a credit card company by paying them? With a bad check. The check bounces but you’ve already run up new charges in the meantime.
Note that this could be done by a criminal using someone else’s account information.