I don’t usually comment on things that go on over at TikTok, but there’s a viral story that’s going on and it’s just too precious to ignore. It seems that there was a “glitch” at the bank’s ATM that allowed account holders to write themselves a check for any amount and then those funds were, for some reason, made available immediately, even when the check was for an insanely high amount. That’s a serious problem, one that Chase has no one to blame but themselves for.
Where it gets funny is that all over TikTok over the weekend, people, almost 100% black people (of course!) were flashing the large amounts of money that they got. Some even tried to close their accounts after getting the money. They thought they got free money. Unfortunately for them, they’re now in deep stuff.
All you have to do is scroll TikTok, and, for that matter, X, and you’ll see people whining that, as the weekend and holiday passed by, their accounts are in the negative, ranging from around $5,000 to $99 billion dollars. Yes, I typed that correctly. In other words, these people thought that they could get away with committing felonies, multiple felonies if they deposited more than one check.
The whole thing is being called an “infinite money glitch.” While many were able to withdraw insane amounts of cash at the ATM, others tried to electronically transfer the funds to other money services. Sure, most of them were successful in getting large amounts of money, but that success will soon be replaced by charges of check fraud.
I don’t know how people thought that they would get away with it. They’re on camera. They used debit cards linked to their accounts and in many cases their cars were captured on camera. In other words, the local branches know exactly who did what, and as a result, Chase’s fraud department has its hands quite full.
The people on TikTok are, for the most part, literally crying that their lives are ruined and that they thought that they’d get away with it. Still others blamed Chase instead of owning up to their own irresponsible and illegal acts. One guy, however, admitted that his checking account being overdrawn by $35,000 was karma “biting me in the ass.”
Lots of people also posted videos on TikTok showing off their spending sprees. Now, most of these people surely know that Chase has TikTok too and that the bank is slowly but surely gathering evidence. People will be paying for this. Some will probably do the right thing and return as much of the cash that they still have, but they won’t be able to escape criminal charges.
Even if Chase declines to press charges, and they will press charges, the federal government will come down hard on them and, in time, many will be taking a break behind bars for several years at the least.
The people who took advantage of the so-called “glitch,” which has been fixed, will soon find that their lives, as they know it, are over. Here’s what’s going to happen:
- Chase will submit the thieves’ information to ChexSystems, a service that nearly all banks use. If these people try to open accounts at other banks, they will be unable to do so. If they get payroll, social security, etc. put into those accounts, they will find those funds unavailable as the bank seizes those funds. Since they won’t have another bank account, there will be no place to deposit those funds except perhaps for ghetto deposit cards that charge steep fees. Or they’ll have to get paper checks and go to check cashing places. They will pay large amounts of money for that service.
- Their actions will go on their credit reports. No renting an apartment. No purchasing a home. No opening utility accounts in their names. They won’t be able to get even a secured credit card.
- If these losers even have jobs, their paychecks will be garnished for the rest of their lives. Even if they quit one job and go to another to hide from the garnishments, there are databases that will catch them and follow them from job to job.
- Their tax refunds, if they even pay taxes, will almost certainly be seized.
- They will, in nearly all cases, be arrested and put in jail. They will be convicted and they will be behind bars for quite a while. They will have felonies on their records for life.
I have to wonder if the short-term gain was worth it. The people who are crying on TikTok are clowns. They thought they’d get one over and watching them melt down as they realize that they’ll be held accountable and that their financial lives are over is hilarious to watch! There are plenty of people who posted their take on the people who pulled this crazy stunt.
So what kind of criminal actions will they face? Check fraud and wire fraud, both, as I said, felonies. They will soon have felonies on their records. No good jobs. Maybe even McDonald’s won’t hire them. They won’t be able to vote. When they get out on parole, their lives will be severely limited. And for what? A few days of ill-gotten funds?
Chase is not the bank to mess with. They have infinite resources at their disposal. They will track these people down and they will cooperate with law enforcement.
The people who thought they’d escape accountability by closing their accounts, or trying to, are finding out that that’s not the case. And here’s the thing: most of the people weren’t successful in their bid to close their accounts yesterday. That’s because Chase posted the negative-balance amounts as pending transactions.
You can’t close a bank account until all transactions are settled. And Chase won’t just settle this one out. Oh, and there are holds on the accounts of people who exploited Chase’s stupid error. These people won’t be able to simply walk away. Oops.
These people likely think that because the police aren’t knocking on their doors by now that they’ll get away with it. Chase and law enforcement are likely, at this very moment, getting their ducks in a row. It’s not a matter of if, folks. It’s a matter of when.
People who manage to hide from the cops in the short term will, at some point, get pulled over and they will find themselves in the back of a squad care as the result of arrest warrants. The point is that they may get away with it for a bit, but at some point, the piper will show up and the piper always gets paid.
As for me, if I had an account at Chase (I don’t…they’re evil), I wouldn’t have participated. Sure, the idea of an instant windfall is nice, but every action has a consequence. Even if I’d been able to pull out $10,000 in cash, I still wouldn’t have done it, because I know that I would be committing multiple felonies. I know I would get caught. It’s illegal and immoral.
I want to know why Chase allowed the bug, glitch or whatever you want to call it, to happen in the first place. The system error also saw incorrect balances being shown for some account holders.
Even though I do everything that I can electronically, I do occasionally, even in 2024, have to deal with paper checks. Whether I deposit it through an ATM or through a teller (yes, they still exist!), there is a hold of at least one business day and up to seven business days depending on the amount. To be fair, most banks are required to make $225 of a check available on the next business day, but Chase’s apparent incompetence gave people a magical, albeit brief, payday.
Sometimes, my bank, just like most other banks, makes my funds available sooner based on who the check is from and based on how long I’ve been with them and based on how many checks I’ve bounced (none!). If I deposited a check for $10,000, though, the funds would not be available to me for ten business days, so I’d never be able to pull a stupid stunt like this, even if I wanted to.
Point is, Chase should have limited the deposits to, say, $500 and then people wouldn’t be 30 grand or more in the hole. Chase wouldn’t be out that money, which they’ll get back one way or another.
I don’t know what caused this glitch to occur in the first place, but people almost certainly got fired over this whole mess, because Chase is out a ton of money. Some media reports indicate that the problem was due to a system error, but we don’t know what type of error.
If I’d been one of the people that did this stupid thing, I, as a Catholic, would have to confess to my priest, and I don’t even want to know what the penance would be. If I did it and got my name in the paper, immature people would say, “oh, he lived up to his name,” even though the Crook surname has nothing to do with theft. These people will wind up in the papers. They will lose their jobs. Their significant others, if they are smart, will leave them. And for what? Money gotten through fraud?
The point that I’m trying to make here is that short-term pleasure is not worth the long-term consequences. I don’t know about the people who took advantage of Chase’s massive blunder, but I like being able to have a bank account. I like sleeping at night knowing that I didn’t steal cash. I like being on the outside of a prison. I like not having my cornhole penetrated by Bubba.
Earlier, I said that most of the people whining on TikTok as they realize that there are consequences for their actions are black. That’s not racism. That’s truth. Out of all the videos that I’ve seen thus far, all but one were posted by black people. See, this is what black people do best: steal. Yes, there are White people who tried to get one over, but they are small in numbers.
What’s more, multiple employees who say they work in banks’ fraud departments are pointing out what’s about to happen. And by the way, yes, Chase fixed the glitch. But now, innocent people are paying the price. Yesterday, people posted on TikTok that paper checks they deposited that were usually made available immediately are now under a ten-day hold. Honest people are being made to suffer for the actions of a bunch of monkeys who thought they’d gotten free bananas.
What’s hilarious is that many people have posted TikTok videos that show them calling Chase in tears blaming everyone but themselves. When they realize that Chase isn’t going to magically make the overdrafts go away, they come to the realization that they are, pardon the phrase, fucked. And they fucked themselves hard, didn’t they?
All of these people who woke up to massively overdrawn accounts will pay dearly. Come to think of it, they already are paying dearly. Whatever amount of money they had in their accounts before this little party is gone. I hope it was all worth it to them. Yes, it’s nice to have $10,000 in cash in your hands, but not when those funds are gained through fraud. Some people even went out and made fancy purchases.
There are people who show off their spending, or attempts at spending, at car dealerships and other high-end places. Their joy has now turned to misery.
In the coming weeks, we will see news reports emerge that will show the arrests and, eventually, the convictions of people who thought that exploiting a technical glitch would be a good idea.
And they have no one to blame but themselves.