= Barclays regulation
{tag=Barclays}
{title2=2024-10-18}
On Friday 18th October 2024, <Ciro Santilli> received a call from <Barclays> asking where some of the money in his Barclays account came from and went to, obviously linked to the <Monero> donation and sale.
The following day, the 19th, a "explain your income in 30 days or you'll lose you account" letter arrived, dated from the 8th of October. This had been available on the online documents, but Ciro did not get an email for it so he was unaware.
The following Tuesday, the 22nd, Ciro noticed that all payments from his card were being declined, and upon calling Barclays they said that this was for pending regulatory issues. His account had been frozen.
Part of me wants the donor to give me his real identity and sort this out. It would likely be better for the <OurBigBook Project>. But the other part of me wants to test the British monetary system. Fun and stressful times.
The chaotic nature of Barclays' <Know your customer> is apparent:
* they took 6 months to flag anything
* once it was finally flagged
* the letter was messy, with unclear list of transactions at some points and several typos
* they block the account days after the online document had been available (which unfortunately Ciro did not see due to lack of email notification), but before you've had the time to reply. This achieves the worst of both worlds both worlds by:
* giving time for criminals to escape
* while also unnecessarily blocking legal accounts before they could provide evidence requested
Also, they freeze accounts of people who are still obviously in the country at their home address and making regular purchases locally as before. Not exactly how a criminal would act?
It is also slightly fun, but not surprising, to see the <AgoraDesk> buyers refuse to give any contact besides their public <Telegram (software)>, not even email. I'm not sure that <Barclays> does <Telegram (software)>! Not super important though because ultimately the initial <Monero> donation is anonymous. Shame I started on AgoraDesk before finding out about <cryptocurrency swappers> such as <SimpleSwap>.
Related cases:
* 2023 LightOver4599 https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/17piakf/barclays_have_blocked_access_to_my_account_and/
* 2022 https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/uqd0ch/barclays_closed_my_account_here_is_what_happened/
Published at:
* https://x.com/cirosantilli/status/1850107494695137415
* https://mastodon.social/@cirosantilli/113373006914258489
* https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7255876739426349056/