I'm participating in an Internet campaign to stop a regulation which would require your bank to spy on you, and I'd like to invite you to join me.

We now have less than 20 days to contact the FDIC and demand that it kill its proposed "Know Your Customer" rule. Please forward this message to any friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, or other people you know who may be interested, then go to http://www.defendyourprivacy.com and sign the petition. It will be submitted directly to the FDIC. Plus, a copy will be sent to your representative in the U.S. House and to both your U.S. Senators.

The FDIC's Know Your Customer rule would force banks to "monitor" your checking and savings account and report any "unusual transactions" to the federal government. This frightening threat to your financial privacy would force your bank to:

* Discover your "source of funds"

* Determine your "normal and expected transactions"

* Report any "suspicious activity" to federal investigators

The government claims it is trying to thwart money launderers and drug dealers. But what this law will do is turn every bank teller into a government informer and everyone with a bank account into a criminal suspect.

In a free society, the government has no business asking where you get your money or how you spend it -- and politicians have no right to force your bank to monitor your account.

But that's exactly what's going to happen, unless we can generate enough opposition before the FDIC's comment period expires on March 8. Outraged Americans have already flooded the FDIC with over 20,000 comments against the Know Your Customer regulation -- but the agency hasn't backed down yet.

Let's keep up the pressure.

Please forward this e-mail to everyone you know who might be interested in helping, but please don't send it indiscriminately -- spam will only hurt our campaign.

Then go to http://www.defendyourprivacy.com and sign the petition.

Thank you.

-- Don Chen (DChen@newbie.xxxcom), February 25, 1999