Brickbat: Money for Nothing

Scammers exploited a glitch in New York City's Summer Youth Employment Program, using prepaid cards meant to pay youth for work to run a massive ATM scam. The cards had a $200 transaction limit but no limits on transactions. Over three days, scammers withdrew about $17 million, sometimes taking out tens of thousands of dollars at once. The scheme spread on social media as people bragged about their hauls on TikTok and Instagram. The NYPD and the Department of Youth and Community Development launched investigations. Officials said no taxpayer funds were lost but didn't clarify who was absorbing the losses.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Officials said no taxpayer funds were lost but didn't clarify who was absorbing the losses.

ONLY GOVERNMENT MONEY WAS TAKEN WHAT DON'T YOU FOOLS UNDERSTAND

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

And we just asked the Fed to print us more,

[mad.casual]

Right. The money was "lost" the moment it was surrendered as payment for taxation. Like dumping cash in a garbage disposal. It isn't lost. It didn't go anywhere. You know *exactly* where the money is and where it went.

The fact that it paid civil servants to clean out ATMs rather than overpaying them to not clean up city streets or prevent immigrants from being stabbed to death on subways is just details.

Like being concerned that the garbage disposal shredded the money whereas the paper shredder would've turned it into long strips or diamond-shaped confetti and the woodchipper would've made it into bigger chips.

[Chumby]

Sounds like the youth figured out what the program adults had setup. Not sure why paychecks or direct deposit wasn’t used instead (unless facilitating fraud was always part of the plan).

[GOD OF PENGUIN ISLAND]

“Glitch”

I don’t think that word means what you think it means.

[Chumby]

Feature not bug.

[Wizzle Bizzle]

*using prepaid cards meant to pay youth for work to run a massive ATM scam. The cards had a $200 transaction limit but no limits on transactions.*

Hmmm.... "Prepaid" cards would seem to suggest these were loaded with a specific amount of funds. So apparently someone in charge provided them with 100,000 of these cards and no oversight whatsoever. Then again...

*sometimes taking out tens of thousands of dollars at once.*

On a card with a $200 transaction limit? They took out tens of thousands at once?

Did Reason's editorial staff also oversee this program?

[Don't look at me! ( Is the war over yet?)]

Math is racist.

[defaultdotxbe]

Yeah the Reason article isn't very well written. The original is more clear.

They had a $200 limit per transaction, but no limit on how many transactions could be made, or how fast they could be made. So people would stand at an ATM withdrawing $200 over and over again until they had $10k+