Two months after opening a new account and depositing several MOs, they put a block on deposits on my account. I got a call from Banker, I explained what I was doing truthfully. He asked for Bank statements on the other side. I communicated some of it via e-mail so I have some proof that I told the banker like it is. They continued block for few more months, I believe it is removed now because I have been depositing few MOs per month and cashier doesn't say anything.

One more bank when I was opening an account with branch manger, I made a local connection with her and when felt comfortable, told her that I would be depositing several MOs per months because of rewards and hope it was not a problem. Some of it was in e-mail and I saved all those correspondences.

A lot of it also depends upon interpersonal skills, how you deal with people. Because after all humans make a decision whether they want to escalate or not.

I think you hit the nail on the head here, and it's also the reason we don't see so many of us here investigated. Once the transactions are traced, MS is obvious.

I personally don't keep any records more than 3 months or at least trying not to accumulate...but it does....but 6 months max. At the 6 months mark, I destroy everything....receipt goes into shredder, GCs cut into several pieces....takes a good while doing it....

I have not heard of serious investigations doing MS...so I don't know how things work or what kind of evidences you need to be completely free from the accusation. A few samples may or may not let you go depending on the volume/your background like criminal history....I just don't know. Even before this kind of investigation happens by the government, I'm going to assume you are going to get blacklisted by a bunch of banks/CC issuers....

I think you have a point there and hope that is the case. In that case, something is boiling behind you but won't be big enough to burn you! Wishful thinking?? You guys made me pick up receipts worth of 6 months from trash can and they are going in a plastic bag in the basement.

Agreed.

My understanding is that all your MO purchases are traced to deposits by the PO into your bank accounts. They know you bought the MO with a debit card, not cash. They could question where you purchased the pre-paid debit card. All of us should easily be able to dig up some receipts/credit card statements. I am sure investigators are use to this and have seen it. There is no suspicious source of cash involved at the PO.

It seems after reading several accounts of MS people being visited by the postal inspector, it was them visiting multiple post offices in one day to avoid the greater than $3,000 reporting. They trace those MOs and knew purchased by same person.

Of course we want to mitigate potentially being investigated - spreading around the POs we go to and banks we deposit. But as long as complying with reporting requirements and post office purchase rules, this just capitalism by the rules.

My personal opinion is having 3 months of activity is solid back up. One shoe box every month or so feels good for me now.

I would go to the extent of saying, once the MO is deposited in the Bank, they can see the entire trail right from the VGC purchase with CC. Remember, all of the transactions are in US, it is not like they are dependent on some 3rd country and financial systems are well knit here in USA. If the enforcement is after seeing the trail, they would be able to do so.

I rotate between 3 post offices within 10 miles because they are on my way to work, where I work and where I live, never go to 2 post offices on the same day. Hope that is not a problem.

If it came to criminal prosecution, sure you could. If a prosecutor was crazy enough to bring charges against a true MSer, he'd have to prove a criminal violation of some sort. Structuring? Prove the details of the transactions to show structuring of currency transactions. Think the funds are illicit? Prove the source of the funds. The records the prosecutor used would be the very ones to prove your innocence.

Now the spectre at the feast is Civil Asset Forfeiture. Some LEA decides that what your doing is hinky, seizes your bank account, and then its up to you to prove the absence of any criminal violation. That's when that great big pile of receipts would come in handy. http://www.heritage.org/research/rep...ou-should-know

Andyandy

You guys think the US government has some super high tech s#!t that actually tracks you and everything. NOPE. s#!t is still stupid simple, nothing special going on at the CIA or FBI or NSA relax people. If you get into the spotlight, its because someone had a big mouth...

Right. I guess all those multi-billion dollar data centers are just storing "metadata" :rolleyes:

You misspelled Metabank :p

Do you guys download all the bank statements and/or transaction history of all your credit card and bank accounts you churn before you close them?

I've neglected doing this for some, I'm thinking I should take the extra time to do this and save them in respective folders so I can easily find them if I ever get audited or need them for something similar.

Wait until u get a MO reversal 3-4 mo the after a deposit and you don't have any paperwork to support ur claim. It happens. Maybe rare, but is likely at some stage. Sometimes it seems an easy reconciliation, others they need MO stubs.

Is this a MO from some third party? Or do you mean you deposited a MO you bought for yourself and it somehow got screwed up? Thanks.

You're going to want to explain this in further detail.

So what's the consensus on what looks better when depositing MOs...

$15-20k into 1 account/month

$5k into 3-4 accounts/month

These numbers are just an example, but thought I'd ask what looks better in the eyes of banks.