Chase Bank has been barking up the wrong tree, halting a disabled dog owner's online payment because of a mix up over the mutt's name and terrorist outfit Isis.
When Bruce Francis, who has a rare form of MS, tried to pay his dog-walker for exercising his nine-year-old pitbull mongrel service dog, Chase put a block on the transaction. Francis had entered the dog's name - Dash - on the memo line, prompting the $374 payment to be flagged over its similarity to Daesh, the Arabic acronym for the Islamic state.
When the dog-walker told Francis that she hadn't been paid, he checked his account online and saw that the transfer had been flagged for review by the US Treasury Department. The government had attached a note asking for an explanation of the 'Dash' memo. Francis called them and explained and the payment was processed.
Chase told KTVU: "If a name on the OFAC list appears on a payment, we are required to review it. This is an important part of ensuring that crime does not filter through the U.S. banking system. In this instance, the payment was flagged, reviewed and eventually released."
Meanwhile Francis is sanguine about the mixup, telling the New York Daily News that he supports moves to tackle terrorist funding, adding: "The idea that my dog is a terrorist is pretty funny. Seriously, the only thing Dash could terrorize is a roast chicken."