Who doesn’t want free money? In the world of video games, it’s possible with a simple cheat code — type “motherlode” in The Sims, watch a flood of money roll in, redecorate your whole mansion. For a brief, wild moment, a viral TikTok trend suggested that such a shortcut could exist in real life, too.
The money “hack” worked like this: Over the weekend, news of a “glitch” spread on TikTok claiming that Chase bank was allowing people to withdraw funds from a deposited check right away. People took advantage by writing themselves massive checks, depositing them, and then withdrawing stacks of cash at ATMs. “We are aware of this incident, and it has been addressed,” a spokesperson for Chase wrote to us over email. “Regardless of what you see online, depositing a fraudulent check and withdrawing the funds from your account is fraud, plain and simple.” Chase did not clarify how much money had been withdrawn, or what repercussions there would be for people who had cashed fake checks.
Since the weekend bonanza, videos of people who had allegedly scammed Chase seeing negative balances in the tens of thousands have also started popping up. While there are countless videos talking about the so-called “Chase money glitch” on TikTok now, many of the top ones are wisely noting that cheating a big bank out of money is not likely to end well. The Chase fraud isn’t particularly sophisticated, and very easy to trace — especially when you brag about it online.
“This is pretty much traditional check fraud,” says Kimberly Palmer, a personal finance expert at NerdWallet. “There’s nothing really new about this.” Banks have been reporting soaring rates of check fraud in recent years, which can take different forms. This form, where you write a check you can’t back and take advantage of the money the bank supplies in the interim, is known as “check kiting,” but someone could also steal your check and carefully change the amount and recipient. Fake check scams have been on the rise, too: You get mailed a check from someone asking you to deposit it, using a variety of lies and excuses as to why they can’t do it themselves. Then they ask you to send some or all of the money back. It’s a scam because the funds from the check might show up in your account, but it “doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s already been checked,” says Palmer. By the time the bank verifies that it was a fraudulent check and takes back the money, you’ve already sent the cash back to the scammer.
“If you cash a check that’s fake and then withdraw money, you’re still responsible for the money that you withdrew,” Palmer says.
Chase did not respond to a question on whether it was an error in its system that allowed people to withdraw more money than they typically could from a newly deposited check, or whether they were exploiting the ordinary way that a portion of funds is made available when someone deposits a check, known as the “float.” Usually, there’s a waiting period for the full balance of a deposited check to appear in your bank account — it can take a few business days for larger amounts, or if you don’t have an open account with the bank. “Sometimes, as a courtesy, the bank does make a portion of the check available right away,” notes Palmer. US banks are also generally required to make at least $225 available by the next business day.
It’s worth noting that even when banks make a mistake — no fraud involved — customers usually don’t get to keep the money. Financial institutions don’t operate under “no takesy-backsies” rules.
The Chase Check Fraud Incident of 2024 is emblematic of a pattern of financial pro-tips and quick hacks offered on social media platforms like TikTok: They’re not smart shortcuts to save money or earn a little more. At best it’s bad advice that won’t improve your finances, and at worst they’re straight-up illegal. One example from last year: a TikToker telling viewers they can easily charge a $100,000 watch on a business credit card and never pay it off. “With business credit, you are not personally held responsible for that line of credit,” the user @greenthumbgotbands claims in the video. (In a later video, he said it was a joke.) To be clear, even with a limited liability company, or LLC for short, you can absolutely be personally liable for business debt, especially when it’s fairly easy to prove that you were mingling personal and business purchases — like a flashy watch. Your credit card company might also shut down your business’s credit line. Early this year another TikToker made waves by promoting one easy trick to increasing your credit limit: by sending invoices to your own LLCs and then paying them with a credit card. It looks like your business is getting a lot of income, and it looks like your credit cards are getting high usage, which are both factors used to determine higher credit limits. This is also likely fraud.
In Australia, a viral financial tip in 2021 advertised as a way to get a quick government loan led to the country’s tax office being defrauded of $4.6 billion. The advice, which spread widely on TikTok, instructed people to register a fake business and claim tax refunds on fake business expenses.
The genre of uncredentialed money gurus teaching social media disciples how to get rich quick has exploded in recent years. While you can find some sensible, common sense guidance on money, bad TikTok financial advice runs the gamut from morally questionable to the downright ruinous, whether it’s advising homeowners to get a roommate and charge them the entire monthly mortgage (or more) without disclosing that they’re the landlord — that’s called “house hacking” — or maxing out credit cards to buy an Airbnb property you can’t actually afford. “I see a lot of real estate advice that really doesn’t make sense,” says Palmer. “Nothing is stopping someone from calling themselves a financial expert, or adding letters after their name on social media.”
If you’re really unlucky, the advice you uncritically follow from TikTok won’t just drain your bank account or tank your credit score — it could actually be a crime. It’s unclear what will happen to the money glitch fraudsters. “It’s really up to Chase if they want to follow up and prosecute fraud that has been done to them,” says Palmer. Check fraud laws vary across jurisdictions, but in some states writing a bad check can be a felony if the amount is large enough (in Texas, for example, it’s $2,500).
With the proliferation of digital banking and personal finance apps, it has become easier to download an app, open an account with a financial institution, and start making some pretty consequential money-related decisions. There’s a sense in which much of our financial transactions and systems don’t quite feel grounded in reality — money isn’t cold hard cash, it’s a number displayed in an app. It’s easier to overspend, and also easier to simply get scammed. The FTC reported a record amount of money lost to scams last year, with about $10 billion reported lost. Younger people, spending a lot of time online, are actually more likely to fall prey to a scammer than baby boomers are.
“People have to be really skeptical when they see these sorts of suggestions online, because they can easily lead you down a path where you are breaking a law without even possibly realizing it,” says Palmer. The “I didn’t know” defense typically doesn’t absolve someone in the eyes of the law, even if it leads to a lesser penalty.
It’s also true that sometimes — if you’re already wealthy or in the right, secretive financial circles — you can get away with fraud for many years. You can wade in the muddy waters where the law is untested on whether you’re only minimizing the taxes you owe or outright evading them. Tax laws and benefits are already structured to favor capital and the ultra-rich, and even if you get into legal trouble, you can hire lawyers to mount a strong challenge in court. But for the vast majority of us, there simply isn’t a shortcut to making a heap of money.