JPMorgan Chase\u00a0has begun suing customers who allegedly stole thousands of dollars from ATMs by taking advantage of a\u00a0technical glitch\u00a0that allowed them to withdraw funds before a check bounced.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0viral\u00a0on TikTok and other social media\u00a0platforms\u00a0in late August.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
A customer uses an ATM outside of a Chase Bank branch in Rolling Hills Estates, Calif. on March 13, 2023. <\/span>Patrick T. Fallon \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOn August 29, 2024, a masked man deposited a check in Defendant\u2019s Chase bank account in the amount of $335,000,\u201d the bank said in the Texas filing. \u201cAfter the check was deposited, Defendant began withdrawing the vast majority of the ill-gotten funds.\u201d<\/p>\n JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, is investigating thousands of possible cases related to the \u201cinfinite money glitch,\u201d though it hasn\u2019t disclosed the scope of associated losses. Despite the waning use of paper checks as digital forms of payment gain popularity, they\u2019re still a major avenue for fraud, resulting in\u00a0$26.6 billion\u00a0in losses globally last year, according to Nasdaq\u2019s Global Financial Crime Report.<\/p>\n The infinite money glitch episode highlights the risk that social media can amplify vulnerabilities discovered at a financial institution.\u00a0Videos\u00a0began circulating in late August showing people\u00a0celebrating\u00a0the withdrawal of wads of cash from Chase ATMs shortly after bad checks were deposited.<\/p>\n Normally, banks only make available a fraction of the value of a check until it clears, which takes several days. JPMorgan says it closed the loophole a few days after it was discovered.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Most cases being examined by the bank are for far smaller amounts, according to people with knowledge of the situation\u00a0who declined to be identified speaking about the internal investigation.<\/p>\n In each case, JPMorgan says its security team reached out to the alleged fraudster, but it hasn\u2019t been repaid for the phony checks, in violation of the deposit agreement that customers sign when creating an account with the bank.<\/p>\n JPMorgan is seeking the return of the stolen funds with interest and overdraft fees, as well as lawyers\u2019 fees and, in some cases, punitive damages, according to the complaints.<\/p>\n The lawsuits are likely to be just the start of a wave of litigation meant to force customers to repay their debts and signal broadly that the bank won\u2019t tolerate fraud, according to the people familiar. JPMorgan prioritized cases with large dollar amounts and indications of possible ties to organized crime, they said.<\/p>\n The civil cases are separate from potential criminal investigations; JPMorgan says it has also referred cases to law enforcement officials across the country.<\/p>\n \u201cFraud is a crime that impacts everyone and undermines trust in the banking system,\u201d JPMorgan spokesman Drew Pusateri said in a statement to CNBC. \u201cWe\u2019re pursuing these cases and actively cooperating with law enforcement to make sure if someone is committing fraud against Chase and its customers, they\u2019re held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n JPMorgan Chase\u00a0has begun suing customers who allegedly stole thousands of dollars from ATMs by taking advantage of a\u00a0technical glitch\u00a0that allowed them to withdraw funds before a check 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11765,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}