Dumb people were saying hey, you can write a fake check and put it in an ATM and get the money immediately, free money!
I thought it was kinda overblown, but I just got off the phone with Fidelity regarding my wife's newish Roth/Traditional IRA accounts and why it was taking nearly a month for the funds to settle. They said they've seen tens of thousands of fraudulent accounts doing some variation of this check fraud since then, so they delayed account settlement by a ton to evaluate each newer account.
Anyway, people are even dumber than you realize. Including me. So dumb. The end.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/03/business/chase-tiktok-trend/index.html