Funds for Isis: horse flags terrorist alert
THE owner of an unfortunately named horse had her online payments frozen and found herself flagged as a potential terrorist after sending a trainer “funds for Isis”.
Susan Govindasamy was hoping to arrange for her nine-year-old Arab horse, called Isis, to attend a training “bootcamp” and agreed to send £500 to cover the costs over Paypal.
The 57-year-old had, however, failed to grasp that the wording of her transfer could have grave security implications. Her payment was quickly frozen after the reference – “funds for Isis” – was flagged at Paypal, which feared she may have been trying to fund terrorism.
Ms Govindasamy, from Bolton, Greater Manchester, is passionate about ancient Egypt and named her horse after the Egyptian goddess Isis, rather than the murderous terror cult.
She has previously owned horses called Pharaoh and Nefertiti, both also allusions to Egyptian history.
Three days after agreeing to send the cash, Ms Govindasamy was contacted by the trainer to say nothing had been received – and found the transaction was still pending. She said she was left “speechless” when she was then contacted by Paypal and told her transaction was under review to “minimise risk for us or our customers”.
The confusion meant she was forced to explain she had been paying for her horse’s training rather than funneling money to extremists.
Ms Govidasamy said the payment wording “went right over my head” until her husband explained why it had been flagged.
“I was investigated, as was the other side where the money was going to, and I explained in detail what was happening and that my horse was called Isis.”
She claimed she had to sign a declaration that she had no connection or affiliation to a terror group before the funds were released.
A spokesman for Paypal said Government regulations require that companies that process payments, including Paypal, scan all transactions for “terrorist and other references”.