Committing bank fraud is almost never a good idea—take it from someone who’s done it.
With the talks of the Chase bank glitch going around the web right now, TikTok user Salty Stella (@salty.sella) is here to reassure you serious consequences can be the result of this ploy.
Spoiler alert: She says it’s not a glitch, it’s fraud.
Bank ‘glitch’ or fraud?
Thirteen years ago ago, Stella says, she needed some money. So she wrote a check out to themself from her checking account with Bank of America. Stella then deposited it into her own checking account and the machine allowed her to withdraw the amount in cash. “And once I realized, ‘What?!’ I did it the next, I don’t know 3-5 days until I had $9,000 in total,” she says.
“And you want to know what happened then? It’s 13 years later and I still can’t have a bank account…no banking institution in the country will give me an account,” Stella continues.
This scenario sounds eerily similar to the Chase ATM “glitch” that recently made the rounds on social media. In a series of viral TikTok posts, Chase customers shared that they realized a temporary issue with the bank’s hold policy made it so that they could deposit checks into their accounts and pull some of it back out immediately—before the financial institution realized the initial check was bad.
As reported by USA Today, anybody who took advantage of this “glitch” is indeed in trouble. While some celebrated their ill-gotten earnings, “other videos show the aftermath of the glitch, with one user showing their negative account balances in their Chase accounts after trying the hack,” the article states.
What are viewers saying?
Stella’s warning video has amassed over 51,000 likes and over 659,000 views. In the comments, some folks shared their own experiences with committing bank fraud or stories from people who they know.
“All mine fell off after seven years, and then I was able to get an account at any bank I chose. But not for seven years lol,” wrote one user.
“I did for it $500 at Bangor savings bank 20 years ago when I was stranded in another state with a broken down car. I’m black listed from their branches but thankfully not from everywhere,” shared another user.
“My mom used to post date and float checks. I don’t think she lives in America anymore,” recalled another user.
Some other comments are less sympathetic and warn against the consequences of committing bank fraud.
“People don’t understand the implications and severity of the consequences from not being able to have a bank account either. It will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to buy a house…” wrote another user.
Are people really still trying the fraud?
Again, apparently yes. Tons of videos on TikTok show people saying the tried they scheme and that it did not work out well. Like this one person who says their friend told them it was a business opportunity.
Or this other person who is recording themself from the back of a cop car saying that they got caught for the glitch. And this other person who shows a negative -$30,000 charge on their bank account after the bank realized it was a fraud. However, there’s no way to tell if these videos are real or just people having fun online.
It seems that while this is an old time fraud scheme, it’s seeing a rise in popularity right now due to the information re-circulating about it on the internet. All instances of the scheme seem to end up in not so great endings.
What is Chase saying?
Chase is aware of the fraud’s new popularity and has commented. In a statement to NBC, a Chase representative states, “Regardless of what you see online, depositing a fraudulent check and withdrawing the funds from your account is fraud, plain and simple.”
@salty.stella ♬ original sound – salty stella
The Daily Dot also reached out to Chase for comment and to Bank of America via email and to Salty Stella via TikTok message and email.
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