Not all trends are created equal. That’s what the fraud team at Chase Bank are discovering as they continue to clean up the mess associated with the popular TikTok trend of exploiting a “glitch” in the Chase banking system.
How it worked is this: TikTok users shared how they simply wrote a check for more money than they had in their Chase bank account, deposited said check, then quickly withdrew cash for the amount indicated on the bogus check before the system was able to catch on.
Videos of Chase customers dancing and splashing cash in front of ATMs exploded across the platform. Even with TikTok moderators attempting to keep them from gaining ground, Chase is now in the process of investigating accounts suspected of taking advantage of this “glitch." Not hard to do, when many of them posted themselves with the evidence at the scene of the crime.
Those thousands of accounts have been frozen while the account owners are under investigation. The banking industry has another term for the “glitch” that was first published to 4Chan before going viral on TikTok: Check fraud. People found guilty can face felony charges and incarceration, can lose the ability to ever get a loan or a credit card again, and may not even be able to open a checking account.
Here’s the deal: When a person knowingly drafts and deposits a check for an amount that they can’t back up with money in the bank, and then withdraw that amount before the bank’s processes can catch up with the transaction, that person has officially forged a legal document and thus participated in what is known as “check-kiting."
That’s not a system error that savvy users can exploit to make a buck; it’s fraud.
So what happens next for the naughty ones? Well, Chase has frozen all accounts suspected of participating in the illegal trend, shared their information with law enforcement, and most of those accounts now have a negative account balance with a bunch of zeroes. Those zeroes? Not so exciting when the account in question is in the red by thousands of dollars.
Had the trend not spread like wildfire on TikTok, it stands to reason that the damage control that Chase is now facing wouldn’t be quite so intense. But due to content creators sharing their “success stories” of pulling a fast one over on their bank, thousands of Chase customers followed suit, and here we are. Even with TikTok adding warnings to the videos, people continued to participate in the viral trend. If there is any lesson to be learned here, it’s this: Social media isn’t real life. Sound financial advice rarely goes viral. And yes, maybe critical thinking skills are actually dead.
So our suggestion for social media users moving forward?
Educate yourself, and do so off your preferred platform. Lawyering up is expensive, but Google is free.
Make sure that you are aware of the policies and procedures that are in place at your financial institution. And please be assured that no bank wants to give you tens of thousands of dollars for free.
Content creators are NOT your personal financial advisors, and in this case, those who chose to follow illegal advice could find themselves facing jail time, fines, and an inability to open a bank account anywhere in the future now that they’ve been flagged as a bad actor that is risky to bank with.
The big bummer here? Ignorance of the law doesn’t free one from the consequences of said law. Many— if not most— of TikTok consumers who participated in the Chase “glitch” trend had no idea that they were committing fraud, and now they’re stuck with a rap sheet.
TL;DR: If it sounds too good to be true, it is. Especially where money is concerned.
Just. Don’t commit a financial crime because someone on TikTok told you it was cool, ok?
Ok.
