An ATM scam tied to a New York City youth employment program reportedly spread on TikTok and caused millions of dollars in losses within days.
According to a New York Times report, payment cards provided to participants of NYC’s Summer Youth Employment Program were suddenly allowing users to take out more money from ATMs than they should have been able to.
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The payment cards issued to thousands of young people in the program normally give users access only to that week’s earnings – at the most a few hundred dollars. But this time, the payment cards gave users the ability to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars at each ATM. In total, some $17 million was fraudulently withdrawn on the payment cards between July 11th and July 13th.
An estimated 30,000 cards were issued to 14- to 24-year-olds who were unable to receive payment by direct deposit.
The NYC Police Department’s Financial Crimes Task Force is now investigating the matter. Anonymous law enforcement officials say some of the program participants sold their cards for $1,000 apiece.
Mark Zustovich, a spokesman for the agency that oversees the program, the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development, says participants may have been pressured by criminals to abuse their payment cards.
“We are deeply disturbed by scammers preying on our participants just as they started their work assignments to support themselves and their families.”
It remans unclear at time of writing what made it possible for payment cards to allow for the fraudulent withdrawals and who will ultimately be responsible for covering the costs.
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