Bank and Nonbank Money Scams
A mainstream bank and a fintech lender both prey on their customers
Two recent scandals involving financial services products highlight the range of dangers facing consumers.
First, a mainstream bank, Fifth Third, was fined $20 million for both creating fake accounts to meet sales goals and for deceptive auto lending practices.
The fake accounts were created in the names of existing Fifth Third customers without the knowledge of those customers in an effort to help employees meet sales goals.
The deceptive auto lending included charging customers for insurance products even when the customers already had and were paying for other insurance. According to the CFPB, the additional fees attached to loans not only increased customer costs, but also in at least 1,000 instances, led to car repossession.
In another case, persistent wrongdoer SoLo Funds was fined for illegal lending in Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania Attorney General's office announced a settlement with fintech lender SoLo Funds that orders the company to forego collections on more than $500,000 in loans and pay fines totaling just over $200,000.
In other states where SoLo Funds has run afoul of lending laws, they've been found to charge interest rates above 1000%.
SoLo is no stranger to running afoul of state lending laws:
