People Who Used "Glitch" to Get Free Money From Chase ATMs Are Now in Huge Trouble

Oops: you just committed bank fraud.

Wild Goose Chase

"Free" money? Not a chance.

Viral videos on social media purportedly showed a "glitch" that let people withdraw "unlimited" amounts of cash from Chase Bank ATMs. It supposedly worked like this: you wrote a check for an ungodly sum, deposited it either through your bank's app or through a Chase ATM, and then immediately withdrew that amount before the check could bounce.

This apparently worked — in the very short term, anyway.

As CNN reports, this money hack doesn't take advantage of some legal loophole or magically exonerating circumstance. Nope: this is just straight up check fraud, a criminal offense — and the banks are acting accordingly, according to scattered reports online, by quickly cracking down on the bank accounts of the fraudsters.

"Regardless of what you see online, depositing a fraudulent check and withdrawing the funds from your account is fraud, plain and simple," a Chase spokesperson told CNN.

Laughing All the Way

It's unclear how widespread this Chase ATM trend was, or how many people actually attempted it.

Some viral videos showing people celebrating their "glitched" windfalls of cash, such as one where they throw money into the air outside a Chase bank, are almost certainly just skits.

It's also hazy just how much money individuals were able to walk away with in one go, since ATMs have limits on the amount of cash that can be withdrawn — or if there was indeed a "glitch" or some other exploit that allowed fraudsters to circumvent the withdrawal limits.

At any rate, the situation was real enough for the banks to take action. Chase told CNN that the issue has "been addressed," and its parent company, JPMorgan, is carefully reviewing the situation, CNN sources said, as it tries to determine how many Chase customers and how much money was involved in the viral scheme.

Neither Chase nor the Federal Reserve commented on whether regulators would investigate.

Checks and Balances

The aftermath has been brutal. At least one video shows a distressed Chase customer with a negative balance of $31,000 in their account, and another shows one with a seven day hold.

Again, these examples could be jokes, some a little more plausible than others. But according to Jim Wang, a personal finance expert, this is in line with what banks would actually do, which is placing a hold on the offending accounts by deducting the amount of fraudulently obtained cash.

"You can’t spend that money because it’s not yours," Wang said in an Instagram video. "Just because money appears in your account doesn’t mean it's literally yours. And if you spend it and are forced to give it back, you're gonna have to figure out a way to pay it back."

More on social media trends: Doctors Suggest 'Raw-Dogging' Your Flight Is Bad For Your Health