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AKB Fintech, a company that scammed thousands of people
With the recent growth that fintechs have had, it is normal for some to come out that may seem incredible on paper, but end up being a failure, or worse, a scam. AKB Fintech is a platform that was born as an alternative for many users in Latin America, especially for Venezuela.
Today we are going to analyze this topic a little more and this company in recent days has received a lot of complaints for allegedly having scammed thousands of people.
What is AKB Fintech?
AKB or American Kriptos Bank is a financial technology (fintech) company made by Venezuelans. Although the company was born to help Venezuelans save in dollars, or receive remittances, it gradually began to expand throughout Latin America.
The company's goal is simple, to become a means of payment for everyone and a simple way to save. Although at the time, this platform became quite popular, it was declining for various reasons.
One of the main reasons is that it became a platform that took time to process transactions. This happened as a result of the great growth it had, and from there, problems began, until reaching the situation we have today where it is accused of fraud.
Another reason was the appearance of new fintech companies that offered better options and were much more efficient. This of course affected AKB, who saw a lower flow of transactions.
A company that could be, but was not
Since its birth in 2019, this company has become a way in which thousands of Venezuelans and later from other countries found an alternative for their savings. But not only that, but it also offered the exchange of dollars to local currency and vice versa.
Before the arrival of AKB, receiving money from abroad and exchanging it could be a problem. That is why, by becoming a practical solution for this, the company gained popularity.
Little by little, it expanded its products and added more options, even in 2021 they considered the possibility of installing ATMs in dollars. Many people and companies trusted AKB to carry out transactions in dollars
Even last year they enabled receiving payments through Zelle, a very popular payment platform in Venezuela. This made it a much more attractive option for people.
This company did have everything to be a benchmark in the fintech sector in Latin America, however, already seems like a distant dream and the rain of complaints against the company makes it no longer an option.
A problem that is not new
AKB for a few months, since October to be more exact, has been suffering from certain problems, mainly delays.
However, as December and January approached, many users began to report other issues, such as returned transactions or top-ups not completing.
In some cases, people even reported that the company had begun to ask people for proof of the funds they received. This was something that annoyed a lot of people, but they needed the platform, so between invoices, affidavits, and W8 forms, people were eligible.
This made people lose confidence in the platform and eventually began to lose many users who migrated to other more secure alternatives.
A scam to thousands of users?
Last weekend was when a wave of complaints broke out on social networks about the irregularities. With the Twitter hashtag of #AKBDameMiDinero, hundreds of users claimed that the company had kept their savings.
The hours passed and there were more and more people denouncing that the company had withheld their money for several days and without getting a response. Obviously these complaints reached the media and the company had to issue a statement in which they talked about what happened.
However, this "clarification" had the opposite effect and people ended up getting even more upset. At the time of writing this note, the AKB Fintech platform is in "maintenance", so people cannot access their funds.
Many people claim that this is the end of AKB and that the platform will never be available again. Others are more optimistic and hope that the platform will be activated again to withdraw their money and forget about it.
In any case, AKB Fintech has defrauded thousands of users, because this platform is going to have some gray days and an uphill road to regain customer trust.
