JPMorgan Chase customers who committed viral check fraud may soon have to pay up

Goodbye all that “free” money.

Customers who allegedly fraudulently withdrew money from Chase Bank ATMs an illegal plan that blew up on TikTok this summer should soon have big checks due back to the bank.

These people could withdraw money by writing checks to themselves and withdrawing money immediately before the checks bounced. Normally, the bank follows the industry standard of making a portion of each check available to customers before clearing the funds. However, a temporary outage allowed customers to withdraw larger amounts than normally possible before a check cleared.

Now the bank is suing four customers who allegedly owe the bank nearly $662,000, according to four lawsuits that JPMorgan Chase Bank, Chase’s parent company, filed Monday in three federal courts.

One case in Houston involves a “masked man” who allegedly deposited a check for $335,000 into a defendant’s account. Chase says the defendant owes him $291,000 — the most in any four cases — the bank said in a Texas filing Monday.

In all four cases, Chase said it contacted the defendants and demanded that they “pay the overdraft amount, along with any applicable fees.” However, so far the defendants have not done so, which the bank says violates the deposit agreement that customers must sign when they open an account.

Now, in addition to returning the funds they allegedly illegally accessed, Chase is demanding that the defendants cover the bank’s legal fees and other costs associated with the cases.

JPMorgan has also filed lawsuits in the federal courts of Florida and California.

“Fraud is a crime that affects everyone and undermines trust in the banking system,” Drew Pusateri, a Chase spokesperson, said in an emailed statement to CNN. “We are prosecuting these cases and actively working with law enforcement to ensure that if anyone commits fraud against Chase and its customers, he or she is held accountable.”

Pusateri added that the bank “remains open to prosecuting other individuals or entities we believe are involved in bank fraud.”

JPMorgan Chase is the largest U.S. bank by assets, with about $3.5 trillion.

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