Stores where MS activity is going on or has gone on, there is no way, they can not know because of the shear volume involved, it goes on successively for quite some time. If that's case you would think they would have filed lot more SARs across the country, but we don't see that. Unless they have but nothing happened when FINCEN looked into it and or we have no way of knowing whether they have filed or not.

Retailer have nothing to lose (other than time) by filing than not filing so you would think they would error on the filing side. Repercussions for not filing for retailers is high.

Has their been any negative consequences in the past for folks who routinely purchase large quantities (>$3k per visit) of MOs and fill out a CTR each time, either at USPS or WM?

Say you had a store where you can easily offload $5-8k of MOs a day no problem. Should you just fill out the forms and do over $3k each time, or spread it out just to avoid the hassle and potential "eyes" into your account?

Confidentiality of FinCEN SAR's
 

Bloomberg: Who Leaked the Cohen Bank Report? It May Not Be Secret for Long

Hahaha! Ever since I saw the mention of a SAR in the Cohen story, I've been waiting for someone on this board to make a joke about it.....

Maybe he can trade all his MP (Manufactured President) points for a pack of cigarettes or two when he's in prison!
:)

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Needed to buy money orders at the PO for a legitimate reason, but was over the 3K limit, so out came the form....not that my penmanship is that great on a good day, but with the rush of getting it done as the post office was closing, the form was nothing but illegible chicken scratch, and with the online data entry system which the postal clerk uses to input the form data not working, they needed to mail the form in - no way anyone will figure out what's written on there, even though the answers are legally truthful.

So, if you have a handwriting "problem", this might help avoid future tracking issues with filing these forms.

Probably not a good idea to have your ssn anywhere in a binder in some walmart... who knows what could happen.

with the advent of eMSARs, the reliable YV associate told me these are faxed to Bentonville HQ at the end of the day, they have done away with physical binders.

Did they specifically say they destroy the paper copies at the end of the day/week/month?

There's still a small window of risk while they have the paper copy at hand, but definitely much smaller of a risk than the paper copies being there for a long time, especially considering the typically high turnover rate of employment at the places we buy MOs.

Whenever going over the 10k, 20k within 90 days at my local bank, I always get extra scrutiny on the transaction that pushes it over the line. Should I be worried about SARs or an incoming IRS audit?

What does "extra scrutiny" mean? How do you know?

10k of deposits wiithin 90 days is chump chnage.

Banks and CUs differ on what volume they are comfortable letting you deposit. What works at one might not work at another. Do some research on which banks are MO friendly and see if you have access to them in your area. Also, best to diversify if you do end up pushing heavy volume. Never a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket.

My advice is to forget about it and stop worrying--and to ignore most of the comments here. I have no idea why you think $10k/$20k in 90 days gets extra scrutiny from your bank. There's nothing in the law about such amounts and time periods. We have no way to know your bank's policy--and I suspect you don't either. Why not ask? Furthermore, there are actually no automatic reporting requirements for deposits of money orders at all. And SARs can be submitted regardless of any amounts you're depositing. There are over 2 million SARs filed each year--and they're not filed with the IRS. Most are completely ignored. Investigations of low amounts are very rare, especially when cash/currency isn't involved. Finally, I'd question the advice that you should spread your activity around. That only increases the chance that you'll have a report filed. Get a bunch of bank accounts and use one for all your MO deposits. If that one gets closed, continue with one of your other accounts.