Consumer complaint received 2015-05-22
Company: RIA FINANCIAL
State: WI
Product: Money transfers
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Other service issues

Complaint:
My privacy has been violated by Wal-Mart, and their agents, Ria Financial. 
I am a regular working person, not a lawyer, activist or an advocate of any kind. I do OK in my chosen profession financially, which has allowed me to pay my required alimony and child support to my ex-wife, and to help various friends out when they need it. Some do not have cars or bank accounts, so I have been sending them money to pay their bills, buy food and medicine and such via Wal-Mart Store-To-Store money transfer. It is convenient, low-cost and easily accessible for them. Wal-Mart uses a company, Ria Money Transfer, which is a subsidiary of the XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX , XXXX. 
On XXXX XXXX, 2015, I send the first half of my twice-monthly alimony and child support payments to my ex-wife, {$900.00}, which is the maximum you can send in a 24 hour period. I was required to show identification, which I gladly did, and sent her the money. The next day, I was planning to send XXXX of friend 's money, {$40.00} and {$300.00} respectively, so that they could get through the month. Both are unemployed, and only XXXX has any income at all ( SSI ) but it does n't cover her medicine costs for the month. They count on me to help, and I am glad I can. 
So after sending the {$900.00} to my ex-wife, I received a call from the Compliance Department of Ria Financial. The person I spoke with, a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXXXXXXXXXX ) informed me that my current transfer was blocked, and so were all future money transfers. This is after they had already taken out the {$900.00} from my bank account. I make good money, but {$900.00} is a substantial sum to me. And even more worrying, my ex-wife would be unable to make her mortgage payment. Also, I had people counting on me to send them money the next day. I asked why, and I was told that I had sent more than {$20000.00} in a calendar year, and they demanded that I fill out a form asking all kinds of personal and financial information, the name and address of my employer, send them a copy of my driver 's license and passport, and a copy of my most recent paystub. If I did not supply the demanded information, they would not release the {$900.00} I had already transferred, and ban me from sending any more money through Wal-Mart. 
As I have said, I have people I care about depending on me, and I was, I will admit, frankly enraged. I demanded to know why I was being treated like a criminal. I had done nothing wrong or broken any laws or regulations that I know of. The representative of Ria Financial again demanded that I supply the information or else they would not release the {$900.00} or allow me to do any future transfers. I have people depending on me. This was now a hostage situation, and I had no choice but to comply. I emailed them the completed form a scan of my driver 's license and passport, and my paystub of XXXX/XXXX/2015. 
Being forced to disclose this information and supply documents like a copy of my ID 's and paystub is just wrong. It is also a clear violation of my rights as a consumer under GLBA. It has also caused me a great deal of distress and worry. I ca n't close my bank account right now, and now someone somewhere in the world knows everything there is to know about me, and there is nothing I can do about it. 
No one should have to live with the stress of what I currently live with, knowing that at any time my personal and financial information is subject to compromise. 
My rights as a consumer under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act have been violated, and I have nowhere to go to about this, which is why I am turning to you.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation