I used CHASE bank pay to send money to a US Based 501(c)(3) organization. They had winter aid for different purposes including refugees. Affected by tragic pictures of Syrian and Afghan refugees, in the memo field I put "Refugee Winterization Syrian/Afghan" to cue them on my wish.

The text regexp raised a flag, and I was asked to provide detailed purpose of payment. So, here is the conversation (in summary, taking away my expletives):

- CHASE: Remitter is to please cite the applicable regulation/authorization and/or licenses.

- Me: This is a 503 organization providing support for syrian and afghan refugees. (my error in mixing up 503 with 501)

- Chase: Please advise of location of Syrian refugees

(And they are threatening to confiscate if I don't send them a timely message.)

Then I tried the following in other payments with the memo fields:

## Other check

- Memo field: "Maya Youssef is a musician from Syria". (something I randomly picked from Google)

- Chase's comeback: "1. Please provide detailed purpose of payment and advise if there is any direct or indirect Syrian involvement in this transaction. 2. Please confirm Final Destination of funds and advise if these funds are intended to be sent into Syria"

## Other check

- Memo field: "Coffee table style Syrian/Afghan".

- Chase's comeback: "Please provide a detailed purpose of payment and explain the meaning of Syrian in the payment details. If related to goods, provide country of origin.. . "

## Other check

- Memo field: Sennacherib was an assyrian king

(This actually went fine, lol, their regexp looks for exact word matches for "syria" and "syrian")

Whose fault is it? Bad software that lacks basic NLP? Compliance officers who don't understand English? Isn't this a bit discriminatory? You should not use the word "Syria" or "Syrian" about anything on your memo fields!

And pray Columbia never gets a sanction, 'cause you cannot speak of "Columbian coffee" anymore. Or one day your Venmo send for "Turkish Coffee" or "Russian tearoom" could get "canceled".