Why is my apple cash account permanently restricted? How can I undo this?

That’s what everyone says, but the bank doesn’t do the investigation. FinCEN does the investigation. They are part of the US Treasury Department. You can learn more about them at the link below.

I see on Reddit and other social media platforms that people suggest filing a CFPB complaint might reopen the account. But it really doesn’t do much good. The bank will file another SAR and it’ll be investigated and account closed again.

A lot of what looks like innocent movement of funds is technically money laundering. I know when I say money laundering peoples minds instantly go to drug dealers and terrorists. But it’s much simpler than that in many cases. The funds someone is sending you might be laundered or involved in a suspicious activity.

Another possibility is receiving regular payments of specific amounts. Banks get suspicious about larger deposits and regular deposits, like every Friday $5000 is deposited in the account. Regular deposits are indicative of commercial use. I have a friend getting paid by a couple of renters the beginning of every month. After a few months his account was shutdown. I told him he needs to put it in a business account, not a personal account.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Crimes_Enforcement_Network

Good luck with opening your account! 😀😀

Information provided here is not specific to Apple Cash and applies to all Banks and may help to answer most of your questions or actually why there is no answer to your questions. I have no idea what happened in your specific case or if this applies to you, but the information may be helpful. Banks must follow the rules of the BSA (Bank Secrecy Act) and report any suspicious activity with something called a SAR(Suspicious Activity Report). This could be anything that violates the rules of the bank including such things as using another persons account, providing identification that does not match the account holder or finding suspicious transactions. This does not mean you are being investigated, but you could have received money from someone who is. Banks are required not to tell you anything about this report as noted here:

SARs are used for law enforcement or regulatory purposes to combat terrorism, terrorist financing, money laundering and other financial crimes. For this reason, the BSA provides that a financial institution, and its officers, directors, employees, and agents are prohibited from notifying any person involved in a suspicious transaction that the transaction was reported.

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2010/12/03/2010-29880/confidentiality-of-suspicious-activity-reports

So with that background, it may help with some of your question.

• Why could this happen?

SAR report could have been filed for a number of reasons due to suspicious activity or false identification provided by you or anyone that you sent/received money from.

• How did this happen?

A transactions was made that required the bank to issue a SAR. Banks have no leeway here and will be held liable if the report is not issued.

• If my account was under review why wasn’t I told?

Because banks are required under the law not to tell you. In fact to make sure this does not happen, it is not even disclosed to the Customer Service agents that you are talking to. That is why all they know is that it has been restricted and cannot tell you why. It may seem unhelpful, but there is literally nothing they can tell you.

• If they think there’s fraud why wasn’t I told?

Same as above. You will not be told and it would be against the law if you were told.

• How can I get this undone?

Sorry, but no clear answer that I can provide. Just from the wording “permanently restricted” that you provided, it may be the case that the bank (GreenDot Bank) has no intention of removing the restriction.

Were you doing commercial activity on your Apple Cash account? Were you making purchases of cryptocurrency or online gambling?