=== Declan, Hi. If you find the following rant appropriate for Politechbot, feel free to post it [without my last name or email address]. I went to make a routine, legitimate bill payment to a name-brand, nationally-known institution of about $900.00 at a local Wal-Mart today via the MoneyGram service, and found the clerk, and the customer service manager, and the store assistant manager insisting they weren't going to complete the transaction unless I first showed them my driver's license. I protested to the assistant store manager, "D. J." that the form already had my name, address, and phone number on it, and why did they really need my ID for a routine bill payment to a well-known institution? But apparently that wasn't good enough for either him or for Moneygram. I clearly told him that I thought my civil liberties were being violated by such an apparently unreasonable requirement. He mumbled something about "Patriot Act" and then told me, "I could care less." I then took my business 25 feet away to a Western Union agent within that same Wal-Mart store, and made my payment that way. The Western Union agent did not hassle me for ID, but then they charged more for the service than MoneyGram would have. I later found that page 11 of The MoneyGram Agent Guide http://www.moneygram.com/forms/agentguide.pdf details this "requirement". [Page http://www.moneygram.com/servlet/DefaultApplyXSL?xslURL=/Display/temgweb.xsl&URL=/document/s8__MSB_Form.xml also seemed relevant.] But I still think this "requirement" is way above and beyond any federal anti-money-laundering mandate I know of. Tony _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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