"Free money" will be expensive: thousands of Americans risk jail because of TikTok challenge

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Chase Bank ATMs "Handed Away" Millions: What Happened?

Over the weekend, social media was swept by a wave of videos showing a supposedly legal way to get free money from U.S. Chase Bank ATMs across the country. Users were encouraged to use a simple but illegal scheme: deposit a cheque into the account for a large amount that they do not actually have, and then quickly withdraw some of these funds before the bank has time to detect the lack of real coverage.

JP Morgan Chase responded to the situation by announcing its intention to report violators to law enforcement agencies. A representative of the bank explained that an internal investigation is carried out for each suspicious case, and the information, if necessary, is transferred to law enforcement agencies. The bank stressed that regardless of the information on the Internet, such actions are fraudulent.

The exact number of people who have tried to take advantage of this scheme is unknown, but the Wall Street Journal estimates that it is in the thousands. The popularity of this "trick" has reached such a level that tens of millions of users have watched videos about it on TikTok.

Among the popular videos was one where the girl tried to convince her mother that there was a possibility of receiving from 40 to 50 thousand dollars without any consequences. Despite her mother's skepticism, the daughter insisted on the safety of the operation, calling it simply a "system failure."

Some users even published videos where they scattered the money allegedly received in this way. However, Chase announced the freezing of a number of accounts whose owners tried to take advantage of the scheme. Moreover, the bank provides the police with recordings from surveillance cameras and other information about the persons involved.

Despite the initial hype, the situation quickly changed. Now, most of the new videos ridicule those who believed in the existence of such a possibility and did not realize that we are talking about a crime.

One of the users of platform X (formerly Twitter) ironically noted that only TikTok could turn a major theft into a "life hack" and rename the check fraud to a "system failure". The U.S. Postal Inspectorate also responded to the situation by warning users of the seriousness of the crime and the inevitability of punishment for check fraud.

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The largest US bank, JPMorgan Chase, has launched a prosecution of fraudsters who illegally cashed out large amounts through ATMs, taking advantage of a vulnerability in the system.

The situation went viral on social networks X and TikTok in the summer, after attackers learned to use a technical glitch to deposit fake checks and instantly withdraw money until the checks were rejected. Since the end of August, videos have begun to appear on the Internet in which people show how they withdrew large sums of money from Chase ATMs shortly after making invalid checks.

Usually, banks provide access to only a part of the check amount before it is fully processed, which takes several days. JPMorgan reports that it eliminated the vulnerability a few days after discovery.

A spokesperson for the bank, while declining to disclose specific details about the number of such transactions and the exact amount of damages, confirmed that four lawsuits had been filed in federal courts in Texas, Florida and California. The Bank actively cooperates with law enforcement agencies to bring the attackers to justice and restore customer trust.

One of the cases involves a man who owed JPMorgan nearly $291,000 after an accomplice deposited a fake check for $335,000 into the man's account, after which the client began actively withdrawing illegally obtained funds. In other cases, the defendants are In and Out Appliances LLC and Riskboss Musiq LLC. According to CNBC, the damage from these cases ranges from $80,000 to $141,000.

Most of the cases considered by the bank are related to smaller amounts, but in each of them, the bank did not receive a refund, which violates the deposit agreement signed by customers when opening an account.

In the lawsuits, JPMorgan seeks a refund with interest, overage penalties and legal costs, as well as compensation in the form of punitive damages in some cases. Civil cases may be only the beginning of a wave of lawsuits aimed at forcing customers to repay debts and demonstrating the bank's principled position on combating fraud. Priority was given to cases with large sums and alleged links to criminal groups.

The civil lawsuits do not rule out possible criminal prosecution - JPMorgan has passed information on a number of cases to law enforcement agencies across the country.

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