> In the description I put "fun times".

I recently started using Venmo to pay a few people and the things I have wrote are awful. Recent examples include: "Human organ trafficking" "Lunch and murder for hire", "sack of shrunken heads" and so on. Let them call me.

I put "Crimea" in a venmo transfer to my own wife and they will no longer allow me to transfer funds to her.

I'm American. I went on a trip to Cuba for a free software conference, and someone from the conference borrowed a few Cuban Pesos from me to get some food before going to the airport. Later he sent me USD on Venmo for "Cuban cash transfer" and they threatened to close his account, but he managed to convince them that he was sending me money for lunch at a Cuban restaurant in the US. Ever since then, I'm cautious about descriptions when I Venmo people money.

For some real fun start quoting koranic poetry and start listing random sites in yemen and pakistan.

Get ready for your account to be closed suddenly without warning over the next few years.

Never forget.. It's not personal. It's just a process who wants to shed potential liability by applying pressure on individuals involved. Wouldn't be necessary if we had banking secrecy.

Vice did a writeup where a reporter did this just to see what happened and it ended with the associated funds effectively seized.

Maybe they've gotten more permissive but don't do this with money you can't afford to lose.

I'm an American and so I totally get what you're saying and in principle you're absolutely right, but that's not the way I roll anymore.

I want to be as under the radar as I can be when it comes to stuff like this. My attitude is that the bank already knows too much about me, why give them more rope?

At that moment you should have made it clear that it isn't his business at all to disincenitivise future bad behavior. Even as a lazy person I probably would have switched banks.

It is; the UK has very strict KYC laws and any institution handling money is quickly on the hook for certain misdeeds by their customers. They need to show diligence in monitoring that activity.

> You must meet certain day-to-day responsibilities if your business is covered by the Money Laundering Regulations. These include carrying out ‘customer due diligence’ measures to check that your customers are who they say they are, and risk assessing your business.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/money-laundering-regulations-you...

(That entire page, like the rest of gov.uk, is comprehensive and very accessible to read for a layman. If you have any passing interest in the area I recommend giving it a skim.)

In hindsight, I probably should have switched banks, but ~~15+ years ago~~ I was young enough that it mattered very little to my sense of principle.

They've otherwise been quite reliable since so jumping ship now would almost be asking for trouble.

Edit: It wasnt 15 years ago this happened, it was perhaps a decade. I'd already been a customer for some time.

> It certainly feels like they're a bit touchy about certain references.

I'd say they quite overstepped the boundaries. What are fun times to you and the recipient is certainly not their business. Why would they even waste time reading the RE line if they aren't doing your accounting for you at the same time?

There is even a party rental company named Fun Times. Would they interrogate every cheque written to/from them?

I'm really not sure. Perhaps it was flagged as unusual and they looked, saw the reference and then questioned it?

It could also be that they're worried about money laundering, or there's someone a little bit keen behind the scenes.