Over the holiday weekend, much like I assume you did, I spent time with my family enjoying our time off together, but as everyone started slipping off to do their own thing on Sunday night, I picked up my phone to mindlessly scroll through TikTok for a bit.

Look, let’s start by acknowledging the fact that even on the best days, you’ll find some pretty absurd advice on that platform, ranging from silly and harmless all the way up to completely wrong and dangerous.

But the “financial advice” that I stumbled upon this past weekend was not only horrifyingly wrong—it was followed by thousands of struggling Americans, which led to significant banking fees, fines and restitution, and even criminal charges.

At the end of the day, these people ended up in a worse financial position than they started at, and it was almost entirely because they followed financial advice from people I wouldn’t trust to run a lemonade stand. Now I say “almost entirely” because the reality is that grown adults should have known better. The old saying “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” applies here.

So what was the advice these people followed that caused them to rack up tremendous fees and criminal charges?

In a nutshell, several financial influencers revealed what they thought was a “glitch” in Chase’s banking system where bank customers could write a check to themselves, deposit it into their own bank account, and then withdraw what they deposited. Ordinarily, Chase would verify that the customer actually had the money in that checking account before crediting the account it was deposited into. Unfortunately, the verification system failed, so it was treated as if it was a valid transaction.

These so-called “financial experts” advised their audience to then withdraw the money and move it to a different, unrelated bank.

They called this a glitch, as if it was some secret to ethically multiply your money, but there’s a much more appropriate word for it and it’s the same word that law enforcement is using this week when describing the tactic…

Fraud.

This is something called check kiting, and can be prosecuted under several existing laws including those against bank fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1344), misapplication (18 U.S.C. § 656), or required entries (18 U.S.C. § 1005). To put this in perspective, perpetrators may face up to 30 years in federal prison and have to pay a fine of up to $1 million. Even worse, they can face prosecution in both federal and state court for the same check kiting scheme.

And based on the amount of “money” involved in these transactions—tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars in most cases, the people who followed this dangerous advice will likely be charged with felonies, so on top of the fees, criminal fines, restitution, and time in jail or prison, they’ll also now have a criminal record to deal with that will severely limit their future opportunities in life. Their lives have been destroyed simply because they followed dangerous financial advice from an unqualified source.

Ultimately, the people who performed the act of check kiting are 100% responsible for their own actions because they are adults and these influencers didn’t force them to do anything. But it does highlight some other issues in our society and economy that need to be addressed.

The first is the abysmally low rate of financial literacy in this country. Most Americans think they understand financial topics, but according to a study by Mises Institute, only 57% percent actually are financially literate. Here’s the thing—not one single financially literate person fell for this Chase “glitch” nonsense. We need to do a better job of educating people about financial literacy, including taxes, investing, credit—both personal and business, and numerous other financial topics.

The second problem though, is that as the economy continues to decline, more people desperate for attention will spread misinformation like this in an attempt to get followers and/or sell their products and services. On top of that, more scammers will come out of the woodwork targeting people who lack the financial acumen to spot and avoid things like this.

In other words, American consumers are facing a proverbial perfect storm, and the only solution is financial literacy. We all need to be more cautious than ever in the coming years, and it would be smart, no matter where you currently stand, to work on improving your own financial literacy and teaching it to your children as well.

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Amanda Webster is the COO of Fund&Grow, which helps entrepreneurs get the business credit they need to run and scale their companies. She is recognized as one of the leading experts in the industry, and is regularly asked to speak on the topic on stage and in the media.