How Financial Institutions Can Detect TikTok’s “Infinite Money Glitch”
- TikTok sometimes allows poor advice to be posted
- The "Infinite Money Glitch" is one such example -- encouraging check fraud
- There are several different methods banks can use to detect this sort of fraud
TikTok trends are all the rage now. While YouTube remains the leader for content created by individuals, many are addicted to the short-form videos provided by TikTok. However, whatever the platform, this has contributed to poor advice or "tips" going viral -- particularly when it comes to the financial realm.
This has culminated in a viral trend where individuals unwittingly commit check fraud -- dubbed the Infinite Money Glitch.
Origin of the Viral Trend
According to NBC's Today, the origin of the trend can be traced back to a Tweet or "X" on August 29, 2024, where a user posted an image of their bank receipt from the ATM after depositing a fake $80,000.00 check.
This spiraled to TikTok creators boasting about the "infinite money glitch" and teaching people how to perform the glitch.
Here's a quick summary:
- An individual writes a large check from their own account
- The individual deposits the check via ATM into their account
- The individual withdraws a large sum of cash
Eventually, more financially-educated content creators took action and posted videos to warn people off of this "false flag," but the damage had already been done.
As noted by many savvy creators and fraud experts, the trend is, in fact, check fraud. Dan Awry, a Cornell University law professor specializing in financial regulation, points out what this actually boils down to.
Detection of the "Infinite Money Glitch"
Unfortunately, few details are shared -- if any -- regarding what caused the glitch. However, there are several different methods for banks to detect this type of check fraud:
- Comparing the Payor and Payee: It's become less common for an individual to write and deposit a check to themselves.
- Amount Out-of-Range Deposit: Accounts behaviors and transaction are important to monitor. When a large check is deposited into an account, this should be flagged and placed on hold -- particularly if the account does not regularly see these large transactions.
- Amount Out-of-Range Written: Similar to the previous point, if an account does not typically write large checks, this should be flagged immediately for review.
- Deposit Channel Review: Banks need to ensure that their ATMs are secure -- ensuring funds available thresholds are in place.
With all these taken into account, banks are able to utilize a rules engine to flag this type of transaction and behavior for review. This feature is available in our Anywhere Fraud module through the Sherlock 5.3 release. The new Embedded Rules Engine addresses a wide range of fraud use cases and allows for rapid system adjustments -- enabling banks to target these viral trends before taking losses.