KEY POINTS

  • Thousands of Americans will receive little or nothing from savings accounts that were locked during the collapse of fintech middleman Synapse.
  • Customers believed the accounts were backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.
  • CNBC spoke to a dozen customers caught in the predicament, people who have lost sums ranging from $7,000 to well over $200,000.
  • While there’s not yet a full tally of those left shortchanged, at fintech Yotta alone, 13,725 customers say they are being offered a combined $11.8 million despite putting in $64.9 million in deposits.
  • TammyTobacco@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Just an FYI, don’t put 200k into a financial startup. It might be a surprise, but a lot of tech bros are just out to grift people out of money.

  • hesusingthespiritbomb@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    Honestly I have a lot of sympathy for these people.

    It’s one thing to invest in some moonshot crypto. It’s another to invest in something claiming to be FDIC insured. There’s also not a good way of verifying that information to the extent the victims would have needed to know something was amiss.

    It seems like the FDIC was asleep at the wheel, and didn’t really know or give a shit that someone was leveraging them to mislead consumers. Instead of actually fixing the problem, they just washed their hands of it.

    You can call Trump the devil all you want, but the system was broken long before he came on the scene.

  • cybervseas@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I’m sorry this happened. I’m concerned that further deregulation and dismantling of consumer or protections will make this even worse.

    • Ledivin@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Good news, there will be an absolute fuck-ton of further deregulation and dismantling of consumer protections over the next four years!

        • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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          1 day ago

          He’s an old man. Unless anti-aging research unexpectedly advances several orders of magnitude faster than its been doing in the next few years, he’ll be leaving office one way or another.

              • whithom@discuss.online
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                1 day ago

                That is how that works. Genetics strongly influence factors like disease resistance, metabolism, and cellular repair, which contribute to a longer lifespan.And trump has easy access to cutting edge medicine.

                • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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                  1 day ago

                  Genetics strongly influence factors like disease resistance, metabolism, and cellular repair, which contribute to a longer lifespan

                  A sedentary lifestyle, obesity and a diet heavy in hamberders and other crap food can more than offset that.

    • BigMacHole@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      Why are you WORRIED about FURTHER Deregulation of your Money so that THIS EXACT SCENARIO can Happen to you too? You must be a SOCIALIST! I cant WAIT for Trump to Deregulate my Money so Banks can LOSE it All!

  • venusaur@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    This sucks big time. Real question, what motivated people to put huge sums of money into a startup company? Some deal on a loan?

      • venusaur@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Regardless though. What’s the the incentive of some new app over a bank or some already known app?

        • SuperIce@lemmy.world
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          24 hours ago

          Interest rates. Then again, you can go for other more reputable brands that have good interest rates. I was making around 5% with Vanguard cash plus for some time. It’s based on money market though, so as federal interest rates went down, so did the rates for that account. There are smaller companies with slightly better rates, but IMO Vanguard is way more trustworthy than all these new Fintech startups and I know the FDIC insurance is legit.

          • Eezyville@sh.itjust.works
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            23 hours ago

            Yes I agree. I was thinking of switching from my current bank to one that had a 5% interest for my emergency fund but it’s a new bank to me. I didn’t recognize the name. Decided not to do it because I don’t know who they are. I’m referring to Openbank.

    • brossman@infosec.pub
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      1 day ago

      not a huge sum, but I had $10k in it, because it was a fun bullshit app that scratched the lottery itch despite it earning less than regular interest over my time with it

      • venusaur@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        What was the lottery aspect? Damn $10k to just play with. That’s a different kind of life.

        • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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          20 hours ago

          Isn’t $10k like one months mortgage on a house in the bay area? And just swing by vegas… plenty of people spending that kind of money. It may seem like a different kind of life, but often it is just a different location. They often live a lot like the rest of us… thier emergency fund might last 2 months instead of one, but they are still pretty close to broke if they lose thier job. When someone starts dropping $100k… that is a different life.

            • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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              7 hours ago

              Yeah, the number of people who area few missed paychecks or less away from being broke according to articles I have read is alarmingly high. Even tons of people earning 6 figures. Housing and food are such a high percentage of peoples expenses these days.

                • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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                  4 hours ago

                  Yeah, like in new york city you can’t afford a house on a low six figure income. But in mississippi you can buy a masion. The discrepancy is insane. I guess I am lucky because I don’t like big cities and can work remote.

  • treadful@lemmy.zip
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    1 day ago

    Curious why law enforcement wouldn’t be involved in this. Sure smells like a Madoff like thing in the background.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      Seems like the sort of thing the SEC might investigate.

      Who knows what investigations are going on. They don’t always put out a press release at the start of every investigation.

      • treadful@lemmy.zip
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        1 day ago

        Maybe. But you’d think the reporter might ask some of the relevant agencies. Or the victims they interviewed might mention it.