Get Rich Quick Scheme or Fraud? Some Chase Customers Find Out the Hard Way

Some chase customers were reminded recently that the banks never lose.

A few very smart individuals discovered that cash from deposited checks show up on your balance before they actually clear. So, some folks decided to write fraudulent checks, withdraw the cash from an ATM before the checks were reviewed, and dance around on the internet with their newfound fortunes.

Chase’s fix? To deduct the bounced amount from the fraudsters’ accounts, leaving them with a negative balance of whatever they withdrew.

Womp womp.

If they hadn’t spent the money yet, they could simply redeposit the stolen cash to bring their account back to positive. But that might not be the end of the story.

What these people did was check fraud, something thatbanks and the U.S. government take pretty seriously.

Check fraud is an offense that can result in varying levels of punishment, depending on the amount stolen and previous criminal history. It can result in mere probation or up to decades in prison.

Chase has not yet said whether they would pursue criminal action, but anyone that leaves their account that far negative will surely face their wrath.

These kind of schemes are great to help weed out the truly dumb criminals, who have stolen money from an entity that has quite literally every piece of important information about them documented—as well as more control over their financial future than some may realize.

Even if Chase is nice enough to let these people off with a warning, assuming the money is returned, it’s hard to imagine the bank allowing them to continue banking there. And there will surely be some sort of mark to let future banks know that this person has committed fraud.

Banking is an incredibly important part of the modern financial world. Don’t screw that up by trying to steal.