by Jane L. Johnson
Mises.org
P.T. Barnum purportedly proclaimed that “There’s a sucker born every minute”, though there is no proof that he actually said it. Whether true in Barnum’s time or in today’s social-media era, however, the phrase describes those gullible enough to believe anything, even when their better judgment (if they possess any of that) tells them otherwise.
Now comes a story about TikTok, where 40 percent of young adults get their news these days. Recent news sources report TikTok videos portraying people believing they could get “free” cash from Chase Bank ATMs. These videos showed people depositing checks for large sums of money at Chase ATMs, and then making withdrawals for smaller yet substantial amounts, leading them to believe they had discovered a computer glitch to take advantage of. One video viewed over 100,000 times shows a young woman calling her mother and telling her she could get $40,000 to $50,000 out of her Chase account by depositing a check and taking advantage of the “glitch.”