Millions vanished from New York City ATMs in just three days, all thanks to a government-run summer jobs program for teens that—once again—fell flat on its face, leaving taxpayers and businesses to foot the bill for bureaucratic incompetence.

At a Glance

• NYC’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) payment cards were exploited in a $17 million ATM scam.
• Scammers used social media to spread the fraud, encouraging mass card purchases and ATM withdrawals.
• ATM operators and local businesses bore the brunt of the financial loss, while city officials scrambled to explain the breakdown.
• The incident exposes massive flaws in government benefit payment systems and raises questions about oversight and security.

Government-Run Youth Jobs Program Turns into Free-for-All ATM Heist

The Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) was supposed to give New York City teens honest summer work and a taste of responsibility. Instead, the city’s latest experiment in social engineering handed fraudsters a blank check—quite literally. Between July 11 and July 14, 2025, scammers exploited a gaping vulnerability in city-issued prepaid debit cards, draining $17 million from ATMs across the city in a jaw-dropping spree that left local businesses and taxpayers stunned. The cards, meant to give unbanked youth weekly wages, became a hot commodity on TikTok and Instagram, where how-to videos spread like wildfire, showing just how to turn a government program into a get-rich-quick scheme.

Debit cards given to NYC’s summer youth job program tied to $17 M ATM fraud scam: sources https://t.co/BQd7QpS8St pic.twitter.com/5VGUnbA286

— New York Post (@nypost) July 26, 2025

Social media did what government oversight couldn’t: it mobilized an army of opportunists. Viral posts offered to buy SYEP cards for up to $1,000 apiece, promising easy access to “free” cash. The result? ATM machines were wiped clean, with individual withdrawals hitting $10,000, $20,000—even $43,000 at a time, according to sources. By the time city officials caught on, the damage had already been done, underscoring the absurdity of trusting massive sums and sensitive data to government-run, tech-dependent programs without adequate security or accountability.

Watch: NYC’s Summer Youth Employment Program A.T.M. Scam

ATM Operators Left Holding the Bag as City Officials Dodge Accountability

ATM operators, including companies like ATM World Corp., were the first to sound the alarm. They noticed something was off as their machines hemorrhaged cash at record rates, ultimately suffering the lion’s share of the $17 million loss. While the city claims no “taxpayer funds” were directly lost, the question of who will ultimately pay remains conveniently unanswered. Youssef Mubarez, COO of ATM World, described the withdrawals as “unlimited loads of cash,” likening it to handing out keys to the city’s vaults. Meanwhile, city officials, including the Department of Youth & Community Development (DYCD), scrambled to assure the public that they were “deeply concerned” and cooperating with law enforcement—classic bureaucratic doublespeak after the horse has already bolted.

As is always the case, the government isn’t just slow to acknowledge failure; it’s allergic to accountability. The DYCD has yet to publicly disclose what technical glitch allowed such massive withdrawals or how many cards were compromised. Instead, they’re promising “reviews” and “investigations,” while the rest of us are left wondering if any lessons will actually be learned before the next multimillion-dollar fiasco hits the news.

Social Media’s Role: Amplifying Chaos, Exposing Systemic Weakness

The scale and speed of this scam would have been impossible without social media, especially TikTok and Instagram. These platforms, already infamous for fueling viral idiocy, became megaphones for fraud, enabling scammers to reach thousands of potential “participants” in hours. Videos demonstrated step-by-step instructions for cashing out, and buyers lined up to purchase compromised cards. The result wasn’t just a financial hit; it was a direct assault on the integrity of government benefit programs and a harsh wake-up call about the dangers of putting sensitive public funds in the hands of unvetted technology and unaccountable administrators.