Discover Card funding terrorist letter

[gmh1013]

My wife got one a few days ago and got so mad she called Discover and closed it.
We both have Discover cards but diff accounts.....I never got "the letter"
At first i thought it was one of those fishing to get your S.S. and looking on the net lots thought the same. The only reason we can come up with is I have Scot-Irish last name and hers is Sephardic Jew.

[rr-nyc]

um, what?

[SG56]

I'm puzzled too.

[Constantine]

What did the letter say, was it asking for additional personal information?
They could be required by law for AML/KYC purposes to collect this. As to why you didn't receive it, maybe they already have the required details from you, or maybe you will get it later.

[cop414]

Greg, was this "letter" legit according to Discover? What were the contents of the letter? What was the response from Discover?
Need some more info...

[beshannon]

[cop414]

Greg is this what you're talking about?

https://www.discover.com/online-bank...mbinedForm.pdf

If so that looks like federal law for all financial institutions not just Discover.

[gmh1013]

Originally Posted by cop414

Greg is this what you're talking about?

https://www.discover.com/online-bank...mbinedForm.pdf

If so that looks like federal law for all financial institutions not just Discover.

no....

Dear Delia

To meet new government guidelines that prevent money laundering and terrorist financing institutions must maintain current info about there customers.
Therefore we are requesting that our customers update their profiles with US citizenship prof and occupation info .
You can go online or call and seak with an agent. etc etc.......
she called alright....and canceled the card...

like i told them her SS is prof enough....im going to cancel mine also today.

[gmh1013]

Sure i always check the "im a terrorist box" for all applications

[Laszlo]

Insanity and this is just the beginning. I suppose one would get one of these from every US credit card company.

[gmh1013]

Originally Posted by Laszlo

Insanity and this is just the beginning. I suppose one would get one of these from every US credit card company.

No......just if you have a strange last name like my wife....she kept her maiden name because of kids etc....like i said she is Mexican...but Sephardic Jew. Mexico city has a High Jewish population from when the Jews were run out Spain hundreds of years ago living in Mexico. Most dont even know they are Jewish blood.

[superdog]

I am honestly not sure what the problem is.....

[powerfunk]

KYC laws are getting pretty crazy. Just to sell some bitcoins on Coinbase I had to scan both sides of my driver's license, give SSN, occupation, everything...I don't know why you'd assume this is a racial thing?

[gmh1013]

Originally Posted by powerfunk

KYC laws are getting pretty crazy. Just to sell some bitcoins on Coinbase I had to scan both sides of my driver's license, give SSN, occupation, everything...I don't know why you'd assume this is a racial thing?

I didn't get one (letter)......from what I gather only questionable last names.....
when she opened the account she gave S.S. number D.L. etc and im sure they ran a credit check etc...7 years ago. S.S. dont change in 7 years....plus She was retired 7 years ago. nothing has changed.....why ask again?

[Bryant Park]

It is a Federal law not unique to Discover and in no way based on name profiling. Periodically financial institutions are mandated to review all customer files and make sure affirmative proof of citizenship exists. This is as previously mentioned KYC and anti terror laws intended to hold banks responsible for doing their part in preventing the movement of funds for illicit purposes.

Non US Citizens can obtain SS numbers so they don't serve to establish citizenship. Primary proof of citizenship requires passport, birth certificate or certificate of citizenship or naturalization.

I fully appreciate and understand your concern but it is completely without basis in fact.

[Bryant Park]

You may want to reconsider the speed with which you assume large corporations are making targeted anti semetic actions against valued customers. They answer to share holders.

[cop414]

Okay, I get it now. She got the letter and you didn't, I see your point. I have a Discover card and never received any such notice. My last name is of Irish origins.
Very interesting wording of the letter, "our customers" not "all of our customers" hmmmm...

[powerfunk]

Originally Posted by gmh1013

from what I gather only questionable last names

OK, where are you gathering that from?

Originally Posted by gmh1013

why ask again?

I've seen credit card companies tell me a similar thing. "We can't consider you for a credit limit increase unless you give us a bunch more info." That's probably all it is. Or y'know it could be that Discover Card is implicit in an international racist information-gathering scheme. Who knows?

[rr-nyc]

Originally Posted by Bryant Park

It is a Federal law not unique to Discover and in no way based on name profiling. Periodically financial institutions are mandated to review all customer files and make sure affirmative proof of citizenship exists. This is as previously mentioned KYC and anti terror laws intended to hold banks responsible for doing their part in preventing the movement of funds for illicit purposes.

Non US Citizens can obtain SS numbers so they don't serve to establish citizenship. Primary proof of citizenship requires passport, birth certificate or certificate of citizenship or naturalization.

I fully appreciate and understand your concern but it is completely without basis in fact.

+1

SSN isnt proof of being a US citizen

[Pix]

Times change, in the past no one looked twice if you bought a one way airline ticket.

[cop414]

Originally Posted by Bryant Park

It is a Federal law not unique to Discover and in no way based on name profiling. Periodically financial institutions are mandated to review all customer files and make sure affirmative proof of citizenship exists. This is as previously mentioned KYC and anti terror laws intended to hold banks responsible for doing their part in preventing the movement of funds for illicit purposes.

Non US Citizens can obtain SS numbers so they don't serve to establish citizenship. Primary proof of citizenship requires passport, birth certificate or certificate of citizenship or naturalization.

I fully appreciate and understand your concern but it is completely without basis in fact.

So what you're saying is that the financial institutions do this on a random basis?
If so I would agree that Gregs point is not valid.

[Bryant Park]

The decision has nothing to do with the customers name. Entirely based on the "completeness" of the clients file. Please stop, what you are suggesting is ludicrous. It's not random but content driven.

[tyler1980]

its the patriot act which requires them to verify information if they have an incomplete file. You are mad at the wrong entity.
Also, this isn't anything new.

[cop414]

Thanks for the clarification BP.

Greg, what did Discover tell your wife when she called them?

[powerfunk]

For context, here's a recent blog post from someone complaining about Discover doing this to immigrants.

[Abdullah71601]

I had to provide Discover proof of citizenship a few years ago. It was a records update, nothing more.

I had to do a similar update with a bank in Dubai to show proof of residency in the UAE to comply with US banking laws as a US citizen working overseas.

Not sure why someone would immediately jump to the discrimination accusation for something so common and mundane.

[Bryant Park]

One last things to consider. The following are the last names of Discovers Board of Directors: Nelson, Weinbach, Aronin, Bush, Case, Duncan, Eazor, Glassman, Lenny, Maheras, Moscow and Thierry.

I have no idea, nor would I speculate or care about the origins of these names but they certainly appear diverse. Seems extremely unfair for you to have slandered them without doing your homework.

I think a retraction is in order or some facts to support your accusations please.

[tyler1980]

Originally Posted by Abdullah71601

I had to provide Discover proof of citizenship a few years ago. It was a records update, nothing more.

I had to do a similar update with a bank in Dubai to show proof of residency in the UAE to comply with US banking laws as a US citizen working overseas.

Not sure why someone would immediately jump to the discrimination accusation for something so common and mundane.

I will say from experience that that IRS is far more invasive than a letter from Discover asking to verify info. The IRS basically has access to your foreign accounts and you have to agree to this before you are allowed to open an account in another country. It always struck me as odd that a foreign bank on foreign soil has to abide by US laws in order to cater to a citizen of that country.

[77T]

Originally Posted by Bryant Park

The decision has nothing to do with the customers name. Entirely based on the "completeness" of the clients file. Please stop, what you are suggesting is ludicrous. It's not random but content driven.

I would add this to the content driven part: it is also netflow and behavior-driven. Metadata is derived from email patterns, cellphone use, online patterns as well as financial transactions and accounts opened or closed.

All of this develops a cross reference to the institution's customer database. So if an uncertainty score hits a threshold, and the customer file is perhaps lacking some data, the customer gets selective enforcement of the KYC rules.

KYC controls typically include the following:

- Collection and analysis of basic identity information such as Identity documents (referred to in US regulations and practice as a "Customer Identification Program" or CIP)

- Name matching against lists of known parties (such as "politically exposed person" or PEP)

- Determination of the customer's risk in terms of propensity to commit money laundering, terrorist finance, or identity theft

- Creation of an expectation of a customer's transactional behavior

- Monitoring of a customer's transactions against expected behavior and recorded profile as well as that of the customer's peers


So to the OP's first point, it is possible one spouse will get selected while the other spouse isn't selected - but it's highly unlikely it is racially or religiously profiled.

[Abdullah71601]

Originally Posted by tyler1980

I will say from experience that that IRS is far more invasive than a letter from Discover asking to verify info. The IRS basically has access to your foreign accounts and you have to agree to this before you are allowed to open an account in another country. It always struck me as odd that a foreign bank on foreign soil has to abide by US laws in order to cater to a citizen of that country.

It's more complicated. I had signatory authority on company accounts, which exposed me to additional IRS scrutiny for accounts over $10,000. They get to comingle your personal assets with company assets when regulating illicit transactions overseas. Apparently, we pay for 'safety' with loss of freedom, which is a weird twist on the 'freedom isn't free' mantra.