JPMorgan is coming after the infinite money glitchers

On August 31, 2024, an interesting trend caught fire on social media: the Chase Bank “unlimited money glitch.”

Multiple TikToks of folks withdrawing large sums of money that they didn’t have in their accounts from Chase ATMs went viral, prompting others to follow suit, such as X user @ionfeellnunn, who shared a photo of him depositing more than $80,000 before tweeting “chase goin outta business after this.”

The glitch, it turns out, was really just check fraud. Chase customers were mobile depositing fraudulent checks, then withdrawing the cash from ATMs before the checks cleared. Chase quickly rectified the issue, locking the accounts of users who took advantage of the glitch and hitting them with negative balances to account for the cash they withdrew, leaving one user with about -$40,000 in “ATM deposit error” charges. (As a general rule, any “glitch” that involves taking tens of thousands of dollars that aren’t yours from one of the country’s largest financial institutions probably won’t work. Not financial advice!)

On Monday, CNBC reported the next chapter in the infinite-money-glitch saga: JPMorgan is now suing customers who allegedly stole money before their checks bounced. 

“The bank on Monday filed lawsuits in at least three federal courts, taking aim at some of the people who withdrew the highest amounts in the so-called infinite money glitch that went viral on TikTok and other social media platforms in late August. A Houston case involves a man who owes JPMorgan $290,939.47 after an unidentified accomplice deposited a counterfeit $335,000 check at an ATM, according to the bank… ​

The other lawsuits filed Monday are in courts including Miami and the Central District of California, and involve cases where JPMorgan says customers owe the bank sums ranging from about $80,000 to $141,000.”

Check fraud has existed as long as checks have existed. British criminals used “check kiting” in 18th-century England to steal money by taking advantage of the time between when a check was tendered and when the money was to be collected by the receiver from a bank. It’s nice to see that, ~250 years later, TikTokers have rebranded “check kiting” to “infinite money glitch,” though they made the authorities’ jobs much easier by leaving a digital paper trail of their antics across social media.

I do respect the audacity of the Houston man mentioned in this story, though. I’m guessing he saw the viral “money glitch” videos and thought, “I wonder how much money I can really withdraw from one of these ATMs,” and he decided that $290,939.47 would be a good place to start. And then, at some point, JPMorgan tried to call or email him about that $290,939.47…

“In each case, JPMorgan says its security team reached out to the alleged fraudster, but it hasn’t been repaid for the phony checks, in violation of the deposit agreement that customers sign when creating an account with the bank.”

And he decided, “You know what? I’m not going to answer that call.” Considering the amount of personal information one has to disclose to open their bank account, I’m confident that JPMorgan will get most of its money back, especially from its larger violators, but I appreciate the fact that folks out there stole hundreds of thousands of dollars, and then just ignored JPMorgan’s calls.