The Landlord Tech Company That Turned Security Deposits Into a Monthly Fee
CYBER
VICE
4 • 645 Ratings
🗓️ 31 October 2023
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rhino sounds like a good deal at first. When people move into a new apartment, they often have to pay a large lump sum security deposit to their landlord. For people who can’t pay, Rhino offers to bill them a little bit every month in lieu of the deposit. But there’s a catch: unlike security deposits, money sent to Rhino is never returned. The company uses algorithms to make the wealthy pay less than poorer people, some renters are still paying for places where they no longer live and no one, including landlords, can get the service on the phone.
This week on Cyber, Motherboard writer Roshan Abraham comes on to discuss his investigation into Rhino.
Stories discussed in this episode:
How Landlord Tech Is Squeezing Renters Who Can't Afford Security Deposits
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | TASTAGITS got the code it's going to launch. |
| 0:10.7 | It's a unit system. |
| 0:13.1 | I know this. |
| 0:15.1 | It's how all the files are the whole park. |
| 0:17.3 | It tells her everything. |
| 0:19.0 | Sir, he's uploading the virus. |
| 0:21.8 | Eagle One, the package is being delivered. |
| 0:27.0 | Uh, so, |
| 0:28.1 | Roche and Abraham, thank you for coming on to cyber. |
| 0:32.7 | I'm experimenting with the soft opening thing, by the way. |
| 0:37.4 | I don't know how, I don't know how well it's going to go all the time opening thing, by the way. |
| 0:43.7 | I don't know how well it's going to go all the time, but I think it sounds a little bit better. |
| 0:44.4 | How are you doing? |
| 0:47.1 | I'm good. You usually do a hard opening. |
| 0:47.9 | Yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| 0:54.3 | We usually do, like, I read a whole introduction, like I make a big to do and I've stopped doing that |
| 0:56.6 | because I've noticed that |
| 0:57.4 | like most of the podcasts |
| 0:58.3 | I listen to don't do that |
| 0:59.6 | the other thing is like |
| 1:00.6 | now is twice in a row |
| 1:01.6 | that I've mentioned |
... |
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