And it didn't scare me because I had money in it. It scared me because I have money in internet savings accounts. I have a couple of internet savings accounts holding my money and earning a little bit of interest (see my first-of-the-year entry for that) while I save up for things like Maggie's school, HSA, etc. Looking at the fake bank's website, it doesn't look much different from any other. And its CD rates are attractive at 5% and don't look like that ridiculous "50% return in six weeks" rate that Charles Ponzi quoted or even the "12% in a year" rate that allowed Bernie "is it too much to ask for you to fling yourself out of a window?" Madoff to surf the expanding economy for decades.
A 5% CD fits right into the "very good rate" without falling into the "too good to be true" territory that'd set off the red flags in my head. And if I had $10k that I could park somewhere for a year or two, I might've taken advantage of it.
So I have an action item for you today. If you have a savings account or a CD or any other kind of "safe" investment(s), send yourself over to the FDIC bank finder and make sure your bank is listed and has a current certificate. That way if your bank ever does an IndyMac, you'll be able to do what the IndyMac customers did, which was to head down to your bank and pick up your money.
The people who have CD's in that Millennium Bank aren't gonna have that luxury.
And, for the record, my internet savings account-of-choice is all insured. Actually, according to the FDIC it's been insured since 1934, which is the year the FDIC was chartered.
