Over the summer, viral TikTok videos showed people how to deposit a bogus check using an ATM and get the money before the check bounced. What was seemingly lost on the people doing this was the fact that it was check fraud.
Now, JPMorgan Chase is beginning to file lawsuits against the people who used the hack to get some free cash. Complaints were filed Monday in at least three federal courts, targeting the individuals who withdrew the largest amounts of cash.
Posters on TikTok and X produced videos that claimed to show a way to make money. The posters showed how to fill out a bogus check, deposit it into their account using an ATM, and then immediately withdraw the cash before the check bounced.
According to Chase, that’s not a ticket to easy money but a ticket to jail. The bank was quick to call out those promoting this scheme and pointed out that it’s an unambiguous case of bank fraud.
A ‘glitch,’ or bank fraud?
Promoters of the scheme have called it a “glitch,” something people can take advantage of. Chase says it’s not a glitch, it’s knowingly depositing a phony check – and people who do it end up in jail.
“We are aware of this incident, and it has been addressed,” a spokesperson for Chase said in a statement last month. “Regardless of what you see online, depositing a fraudulent check and withdrawing the funds from your account is fraud, plain and simple.”
On one of the new lawsuits, Chase claims an accomplice deposited a counterfeit check for $335,000 into the defendant’s account using an ATM. The suit claims the defendant then withdrew nearly all of the money, in effect stealing from the bank.
The lawsuits seek to reclaim the money from defendants who used what has been called the “infinite money glitch.” Chase has not revealed how much money it lost.