One Weird Money Trick… That Could Land You in Jail

So over Labor Day weekend, this TikTok video started going viral that showed a bunch of guys celebrating with a pile of cash from an ATM that they apparently got from what people online started to call the Chase Bank glitch.

This so-called glitch was an issue with Chase ATMs in the States that allowed people to withdraw cash immediately after depositing their check instead of, you know, waiting for the check to clear.

So what these videos were kind of suggesting is that you could write a check to yourself for any amount, cash it, and just immediately access those fake funds.

There have been other social media hats kind of like this in recent years.

You know, there was that trick for how to get a full-size burrito at Chipotle for the price of a taco by just like strategically ordering.

But there is a huge difference here, which is there was no trick or pricing mistake.

It was just fraud.

Yeah, I don't even know how you can act like that's a trick.

And also, like, don't you realize that the bank already has all your information because you have an account with them? So they probably are going to know that you stole the money.

Yeah, I don't think the smartest way to, I don't know, pull one over on the bank is by doing something with your own debit card where you are probably being filmed by the ATM the entire time.

It's super traceable.

But it's not actually clear how many people actually fell for this or actually attempted it.

It seems like the original videos and some of the reactions might have been a hoax.

I did try to talk to Chase to figure out, hey, how many people actually did this? But Chase wouldn't answer my questions.

All they would say is they fixed the issue and they said, hey, by the way, please don't

You know, obviously, I think probably a lot of the interest swirling around this was because it's funny or interesting to see this happening on the Internet and people trying to steal money from Chase.

But like, it's pretty real that a lot of folks tend to get their financial advice from TikTok now, right?

There's definitely a ton of financial advice on there, regardless of how many people fell for this specific one or not.

It does point to this really real problem.

The majority of Canadians say they don't have strong financial literacy.

And a study from Wall Street Zen, which is this stock research firm, found that 63% of stock-related videos on TikTok are misleading, and only 5% of them included disclaimers about the risks of investing.

Are there some good financial tips on TikTok?

There totally are.

And one thing I was thinking is, do you want to watch a few TikToks and see if you can suss out which ones contain good advice and which ones are garbage?

Sarah, I would love to do that.