Careful: Banks are watching

They know about that morning coffee and Danish you bought with a debit card.

They also know about the money you transferred from an online savings account to your local checking account.

And if, by chance, you wired cash to a shell company fronting for a prostitution ring — they definitely know about that.

Every day, banks and other financial institutions monitor hundreds of millions of transactions, looking for unusual patterns that could be a sign of anything from money laundering to terrorism financing to identity theft.

The scrutiny, which intensified after Sept. 11, 2001, extends to every customer, from the guy with $150 in his checking account to the governor of New York.