U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

48. I just received an interdiction "alert." What do I do?

Answer

When your interdiction software or account holder checking service shows a potential match, OFAC recommends that you do an initial analysis prior to contacting OFAC. If you have a reasonably close match to a name on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list (or one of OFAC's other sanctions lists) and your customer is located in the same vicinity as the SDN, feel free to contact OFAC. Computer software may flag some transactions that are not actually associated with OFAC targets. This is where human intervention becomes critical and some hands-on research may be necessary. Please look at the following "due dilligence" steps before calling OFAC. Unless you have an exact match or are otherwise privy to information indicating that the hit is a sanctions target, it is recommended that you do not actually block a transaction without discussing the matter with OFAC.

Date Released
January 30, 2015