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A comment on I'm banned for life from advertising on Meta. Because I teach Python.. Parent comment

Re:I'm banned for life from advertising on Meta. Because I t... by alphager on Thursday October 19, 2023 @10:05AM (#37943099)
No, they don't. The banks know perfectly well that this doesn't catch terrorists. But by law they are liable if a terrorist uses their services if they don't have a program to detect terrorists. A key-word match on Iran, bomb, ISIS, etc. is enough in the eyes of the regulator.
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Re:I'm banned for life from advertising on Meta. Because I t... by ndriscoll on Thursday October 19, 2023 @10:37AM (#37943499)
No it isn't (at least in the US). Banks have to adhere to Know Your Customer laws, and have to refuse services related to any person or group that's been sanctioned. OFAC has a search tool for such persons[0], but notably says that even using their tool isn't enough to avoid liability. Just saying "we looked for 'bomb supplies' in the memo" isn't going to cut it.

[0] https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/

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Re:I'm banned for life from advertising on Meta. Because I t... by joncrocks on Thursday October 19, 2023 @12:05PM (#37944724)
Person, group or Country. e.g. Iran.

Yes, you're meant to do KYC checks, but also be on the look out for things that your non-sanctioned customers might be doing (post KYC checks) that involves interacting with Sanctioned entities.

Hence lots of pattern matching on names of sanctioned countries/organisations/people.

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