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Marcus Hutchins :verified:

Absolute funniest TikTok trend in history went down this weekend. Someone posted about this “ATM glitch” they found. They went on to explained that you can deposit checks into ATMs and some of the money becomes available for withdrawal immediately, so you can write fake checks, deposit them, then withdraw the money before the check clears.

They made it sound like some kind of life hack and I guess most of TikTok is too young to know what check fraud is, so they had like hundreds of people uploading videos of themselves writing and depositing fraudulent checks into their own bank accounts tied to their real identities 💀

53 comments
gary

@malwaretech this used to be known as check kiting #go fly a kite

Dan

@malwaretech some boomer who microwaved their iphone trying to charge it finally gets their revenge

Pope Bob

@malwaretech we really have failed in our job of educating the youth, haven't we?

Ron Bowes

@malwaretech I've seen several stories about it and can't figure out if this is real or if this is a bunch of kids trolling the olds (like the tide pods, huffing urine, and countless other stories)

Ron Bowes

@jackemled @malwaretech I think I was remembering "Jenkem" mentioned by somebody else in the comments

Luna Lactea

@iagox86 @malwaretech I thought that was a myth about kids huffing fermented shit that turned out to be completely false.

sortius

@malwaretech the only "ATM" hack I ever knew about or used was when I was living in Lismore (a country town) and they had one ATM that would run maintenance tasks at 1am. You could withdraw as much as you wanted, but you'd end up in negative balance the next day.

Needless to say, 1am, main street, lots of drinking... yeh, a few times I was $100 overdrawn 😆

furicle

@sortius @malwaretech I had another ATM hack - the one in the college cafeteria was just a very heavy but not fastened down unit, and plugged into a regular phone jack, that you could call out long distance on....

sortius

@furicle @malwaretech hehehe, not even an NK line? I suspect that was the problem with the rural ATM I was using; during the upload via a dial-up STD call it'd just stop checking balances due to having so little bandwidth

distinctm1nd

@malwaretech lol. And I was just reminded that I'm not missing much by not being on tiktok

haifisch

@malwaretech I'm kinda outta the loop on this one, were they straight up writing checks to themselves or were they taking someones checkbook? both are fraudulent ofc but the ladder being more far more sinister and almost obviously fraudulent behavior lmao.

Ben Cotton (he/him)

@haifisch @malwaretech my understanding, as my wife who is on TikTok explained it, is that they are writing checks to themselves from their own accounts.

Carsten Franke

@malwaretech omg ... We need some sort of "life skills" class on school. I had 5 years of law classes in middle and highschool, best thing ever! (Though I am a chemist)

Chris Moorehead

@malwaretech Apparently, my own children (who DO understand the consequences of cheque fraud) are going to rule the world.

Luna Lactea

@strangeculprits @malwaretech Unfortunately, schools don't teach kids not to commit fraud anymore. Schools don't teach any life skills anymore besides math, which they don't really enforce learning in & they make miserable.

Voline

@malwaretech
Please, no one make a TikTok of Russian roulette.

Ed Venator

@zhenech @malwaretech Bank phone apps allow check deposit by picture, and the deposited funds are then available for withdrawal at the ATM before the bank processes the check and realizes it's fraudulent and reverses the deposit.

Lt Cmdr Keyboard

@zhenech @malwaretech some of them do, normally the ones located at the bank branch

Rob Chapman :ohai: ✍🏼🐧

@zhenech @malwaretech Malta ATMs still do cheque deposits, but only I think with with BoV, then again BoV as a bank is completely incompatible with the rest of Europe (the world)

Alan Miller :verified_paw:

@malwaretech some are probably including the routing and account numbers, not that there's likely much in an account doing this.

Edit JHFC autocorrect

Patty Kimura

@malwaretech It's always hahaha until the FBI shows up.

Sean

@malwaretech

These gen z kids are fucked. On a related note, who the hell even writes paper checks anymore???

rus

@qwerb @malwaretech I've averaged about one per year for the last decade, give or take. Slightly more common then cashier's checks, though I think I've needed probably half a dozen of those in that timeline.

At least I haven't had to give a voided check to start direct deposit for payroll in that time....

MarkD

@malwaretech You have to wonder whether "some of the money becomes available for withdrawal" is actually the money that's already in there before the check deposit.

Kevin Boyd

@markd @malwaretech Not likely - it would be an account limit for the amount that the bank grants as immediately available for any cheque deposit.

When the check bounces, there'll be a bounce fine and their account will be overdrafted (which could incur additional fees). Whether it amounts to firmer action than that is at the discretion of the bank.

Brian Grinter

@malwaretech when I worked in banking in Oz in the 80s and 90s certainly didn’t work that way

I notice our atms now will scan the cheque and do OCR for the details but still the same 4 days to clear

Morgunin

@malwaretech

Weird. Checks, or Eurocheques, as they were called, went out of use in 2002 over here. The only reminder of their existence is old Germans calling their Girocard (German equivalent of a debit card) EC-Card, which is confusing because the Electronic Cash trademark or EC is owned by Mastercard for their local debit system, which, incidentally is on the way to being replaced.
Electronic payment being a fickle beast, in no way lessens the sheer idiocy of doing this.

Giddey_up

@malwaretech A lot of people in the pokey for hanging paper.

Matt Ferrel

@malwaretech FAFO is going to be really harsh. Bank fraud!

Ylöne

@malwaretech As an European I find it hilarious that some places on this planet are still using them, where as in Finland they'd become so rare by early 1990s or byt the time the Berlin Wall fell, I had never seen one in real life (traveller's cheques somehow don't count) and I am 41 now.

yes, it's me, liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦

@malwaretech neither of my zillennials use checks. checks just don't exist for their generation. and my oldest is in his late 20s. this has to be a massive troll.

BOOCALL

@malwaretech Step 1 Deposit check to ATM

😐

Step 1 Write a check...

😐

Step 1 Order checks...

😐

Step 1 Google "what is a check"

Ghost of Enrico Palazzo 🎃

@malwaretech

Canadian banks all use the Interac system to transfer funds. Cheques are super rare, but there are times when it may be easier, or even required.

mypalmike

@malwaretech Pretty sure I did an empty envelope deposit once when I was poor and ATMs took envelopes.

🇨🇦 OhOkKay

@malwaretech
All those poor bank workers who have to process all that.

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