In my last Post Office commentary, I noted that such activities as "counting money in line" are being reported to federal law enforcement as "suspicious".
I then wondered if "people who buy stamps" would be next.
I was being sarcastic. Outrageous. You know, for effect.
Not outrageous enough, apparently.
Now Insight magazine's John Berlau has reported that the Post Office also will report you as suspicious if you add money to your postage meter, particularly if you pay for it in cash.
The Post Office maintains that the "Under the Eagle's Eye" does not apply to purchases of "stamps and philatelic items". But, as Rick Merritt, executive director of Postal Watch, observes, postage meters are merely a form of "electronic stamps".
Once again, the Post Office is going way beyond what the (awful) law requires. Just as the Bank Secrecy Act does not require the reports for the cancellation of a transaction (as I noted last time), it says nothing about the purchase of postage as a "suspicious" activity. It refers only to money orders and other financial instruments.
But the Post Office won't let a silly little thing like the letter of the law stop them. They know crime when they see it.
"If they [customers] wanted $5,000 on their postage meter, they wouldn't pay for that in cash," says Gerry Kreienkamp, a Postal Service spokesman. "That's just not the way business is done."
Mr. Kreienkamp, how many years have you spent in the private sector? Do you have any idea at all "how business is done"? And where do you (or any other government official) get the authority to decide "how business is done"?
Brad Jansen, deputy director of the Free Congress Foundation's Center for Technology Policy, seems to think that often, that is the way business is done. He notes that it's normal "for restaurant or store owners who want to send out promotional mailings to go to the Post Office and put the cash receipts for that day on their postage meters." Who do you believe?
Meanwhile, the Libertarian Party is urging consumers to purchase money orders, wire transfers and cash cards elsewhere. George Getz, spokesman for the Libertarian Party, which uses a postage meter to send mass mailings, notes "I don't know how somebody would go about laundering money like that. It seems preposterous. Do you launder money 32 cents at a time? That's crazy."
Not crazy enough, apparently, for the sleuths at the Post Office.
Boycott!
July 2, 2001
