It was the fuck around of times, it was the find out of times. JPMorgan Chase is not yet done chasing down everyone who decided to try it with them last fall when a viral trend on TikTok led to mass amounts of account holders committing fraud. The financial giant has moved through the initial wave of lawsuits for the truly audacious and is moving on to state-level legal proceedings.
A lot of life has happened since we last circled back to this particular can of worms, so let’s recap. In the early fall, a trend on TikTok showed a banking “glitch” that allowed people to deposit checks, wait a minute, and then visit the ATM to withdraw the cash amount the check was written for. They would record themselves doing this and then share the video to TikTok, enjoying watching themselves make it rain cash. Courtesy of people being people, the trend went viral, and thousands of folks tried out this little “glitch” for themselves. Some even wore masks to ATMs—as though that’s what was going to keep the bank from finding out who it was withdrawing money from their own bank accounts, for which the bank has access to ALL of the sensitive personal information. Because, well… bank. Anyhow, JPMorgan Chase caught wise very quickly and kept the receipts.
That “glitch” that people were exploiting was actually a vulnerability due to a delay in check processing, and the exploitation they were celebrating all over TikTok was, in fact, fraud. Not even fancy fraud—just the run-of-the-mill “gotcha!” kind of fraud. JPMorgan filed federal lawsuits in October 2024 against users who took out the largest chunks of cash—$80K to $300K. Major metropolitan areas like Miami, Houston, and Los Angeles were mentioned during court filings, and JPMorgan was chasing—see what I did there?—well over $660,000 from this round of lawsuits. These cases involve organized schemes, fake businesses, and in a few instances, burner accounts. The moral of the story? If you’re going to steal from a trillion-dollar bank that already has access to your sensitive information, maybe—at the very least—don’t livestream the fraud for your audience.
Now, moving on to the current phase of proceedings: petty theft that isn’t actually all that petty. As of the beginning of this month (that would be April of 2025, for any readers of the future who have decided to read this for whatever reason), Chase is going local. New lawsuits are being filed in state courts against people who took less than $75,000. If for some reason you thought that $25K wasn’t a large enough amount to get sued over, Chase said “nah, your buns are up, biatch.” States like Georgia, Florida (because of course, Florida), Texas, and New York are all seeing lawsuits for amounts as low as $58K. Not exactly high-level heists—just regular people who trusted a trend on TikTok and thought they could swipe themselves an entry-level salary’s worth of cash. Many of them were already spending the money before the check even had time to rebound and bounce.
JPMorgan’s official stance on this is essentially, “we’re not your sugar daddy.” Chase has made it abundantly clear that regardless of whether or not participants were just duped by a social media trend, this was fraud. Over 1,000 customers have been contacted for repayment, and while some gave the money back immediately when they were busted, a few are on the receiving end of a “fuck around and find out” cycle. Chase is even going after those who have attempted to discharge the debt by declaring bankruptcy—proving once and for all that one doesn’t simply glitch their way out of consequences.
What once was viral is now indictable. Let the bank glitch saga remain a cautionary tale for those who take their cues from social media trends, because it may have started with clout-chasing, but a Robin Hood moment this was not. The feds—and state courts—are clapping back, and those aren’t the fun kind of handcuffs to be caught up in. The next time TikTok says, “oh look, free monies!” remember this FAFO lesson, and look to those who have been indicted for fraud.
