Okay let's talk about it… The Chase Money Glitch.
Here's what went down: Last week videos went viral on TikTok showcasing a “money glitch” at Chase. Viewers were told that if they deposited false checks in an ATM — that they wrote to themselves for an amount of money that they didn't actually have — and withdrew that money soon afterward, they would be able to cheat the system and take out a large sum of cash before the check bounced.
Users posted hundreds of now-deleted videos showing their Chase accounts with negative amounts, sometimes up to $50,000.
LOL, right? Except it worked, and reportedly thousands of “idiots” (according to Gizmodo) participated in the scheme. The actual “glitch” was that users were able to take out such a large amount of money from the ATM (sometimes the full amount of the check), whereas usually banks only allow you to take out a portion of a large check that you can cover with your existing balance.
Yes, as you're aware, what participants were actually doing was committing check fraud.
Within 24 hours, after the suspicious activity was discovered, Chase users reported having their remaining funds frozen and bank accounts blocked. And now Chase is referring participants to the authorities, along with surveillance footage and other information related to their identities.
A Chase spokesperson said, “As with any fraud-related issue, we review internally and refer to law enforcement as appropriate. Regardless of what you see online, depositing a fraudulent check and withdrawing the funds from your account is fraud, plain and simple.”
The Wall Street Journal said that Chase was reviewing “thousands” of incidents, but that Chase doesn't yet know (or isn't willing to admit) the extent of the losses associated with the scheme.
While I agree that participants in the scheme should've known better… I also can't help but feel that this is a reflection on our education system in America. How did these people not know that they were committing fraud?
This type of check fraud can land folks in jail for years, and years, and years depending on the state they live — and while I don't condone the participants' behaviors, I do hope that authorities take the specifics of this crime into the equation given that most participants aren't “criminals”… they're just “idiots.”
I'd like to think that we can use this incident as an educational moment in society, as opposed to ruining the lives of thousands of people who were too uneducated to know that what they were doing was a crime. At minimum, authorities should be as lenient to participants of the Chase Money Glitch as they were to Chase executives when they've been caught committing fraud. But maybe I'm too soft.