We all know that the US Postal Service has a monopoly on first class mail in the United States. They're pretty secure in their position as government appointed monopoly so they don't try very hard - thus long lines, high rates, and shoddy service.

But here's something you may not know about mailing a letter or using some of their other services like money orders -- you might be generating reports about yourself to the FBI, DEA, IRS and other government agencies!

If you have bought money orders, made wire transfers or sought cash cards from a postal clerk. Since 1997, in fact, the window clerk may very well have reported you to the government as a "suspicious" customer. It doesn't matter that you are not a drug dealer, terrorist or other type of criminal or that the transaction itself was perfectly legal. The guiding principle of the new postal program to combat money laundering, according to a U.S. Postal Service training video obtained by the publication Insight, is: "It's better to report 10 legal transactions than to let one illegal transaction get by."

The postal-service training video points to lots of "red flags," such as a customer counting money in the line. It warns that even customers whom clerks know often should be considered suspect if they frequently purchase money orders.

The video, which Gibson says cost $90,000 to make, uses entertaining special effects to illustrate its points. Employing the angel-and-devil technique often used in cartoons, the video presents two tiny characters in the imagination of a harried clerk. Regina Goodclerk, the angel, constantly urges the clerk to file suspicious-activity reports on customers. "Better safe than sorry," she says. Sam Slick, the devil, wants to give customers the benefit of the doubt.

Some of the examples given are red flags such as a sleazy-looking customer offering the postal clerk a bribe. But the video also encourages reports to be filed on what appear to be perfectly legal money-order purchases. A black male teacher and Little League coach whom the female clerk, also black, has known for years walks into the post office wearing a crisp, pinstriped suit and purchases $2,800 in money orders, just under the $3,000 daily minimum for which the postal service requires customers to fill out a form. He frequently has been buying money orders during the last few days.

"Gee, I know he seems like an okay guy," Regina Goodclerk tells the employee. "But buying so many money orders all of a sudden and just under the reporting limit, I'd rather be sure. He's a good guy, but ... this is just too suspicious to let go by."

Gillum says this is part of the message that postal clerks can't be too careful because anyone could be a potential money launderer. "A Little League coach could be a deacon in the church, could be the most upstanding citizen in the community, but where is that person getting $2,800 every day?" Gillum asks. "Why would a baseball coach, a schoolteacher in town, buy [that many money orders]? Our customers don't have that kind of money. If he's a schoolteacher, if he's got a job on the side, he's going to have a bank account and going to write checks on it, so why does he want to buy money orders? That's the point."

Despite the fact that the Little League coach in the video was black, the USPS insists that it tells its employees not to target by race or appearance.

One thing that should set off alarms, the postal service says, is a customer objecting to filling out an 8105-A form that requests their date of birth, occupation and driver's license or other government-issued ID for a purchase of money orders of $3,000 or more. If they cancel the purchase or request a smaller amount, the clerk automatically should fill out Form 8105-B, the "suspicious-activity" report. "Whatever the reason, any customer who switches from a transaction that requires an 8105-A form to one that doesn't should earn himself or herself the honor of being described on a B form," the training manual says.

But the "suspicious" customers might just be concerned about privacy, says Solveig Singleton, a senior analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. And a professional criminal likely would know that $3,000 was the reporting requirement before he walked into the post office. "I think there's a lot of reasons that people might not want to fill out such forms; they may simply think it's none of the post office's business," Singleton tells Insight.

"The presumption seems to be that from the standpoint of the post office and the Bank Secrecy regulators every citizen is a suspect."



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