Originally Posted by
DjRocket
I think MoneyGram has bigger fish to fry that worry about two 2k MO's purchased at different locations, and it won't be WM, at least in this case. Since MG doesn't interact with you directly to observe "suspicious behavior", they put a limit of 8k just in case, but that doesn't mean you're safe. I don't know what their analytics team is doing, but if they are looking for ML patterns in somebody's behavior, staying within limit won't necessarily help you, the low volume will. It's like one 9 k cash deposit won't do much, several of them, and especially at different locations, might get you in trouble of having to explain what you're doing. This is how I understand it.
I don't think the new ID policy has anything to do with identifying ML -- that's FinCEN's concern.
MG's business model is built on the float between the time a MO is sold and when it's remitted for payment (most, if not all of the fee that WM charges goes to WM). When a MO is deposited the same day it was issued, that costs MG money. I personally know of several MS'ers who are or were doing upwards of 100k/month. So I have to think that the total MS activity has to represent several million/month in MG MO's, and much of that is generating little or no float. This is bad business for MG.
My suspicion and fear is that the purpose of this ID gathering is to make it easy for MG to identify unprofitable customers, and to easily block those people by flagging their ID's. I think it's just a matter of time before we start hearing "I'm sorry. The computer says I can't sell you any MO's".