“In general, maybe scamming is part of the city lifestyle. However, this is not going to retire our families. It’s too inconsistent; you cannot depend on it for life. You cannot have a big family car and own a house with scamming. As a Muslim I believe in your actions coming back to you. Even if one doesn't get caught in this world I believe it will come back to harm them in the afterlife.”
"I got scammed by my mans, we went to school together."
This is what one victim said in regards to the massive glitch in the city’s SYEP (Summer Youth Employment Program) payroll cards last year, a glitch that drained $17 million from NYC ATMs in less than three days. For me, this wasn’t just a casual trend that people watched on TikTok; it became a personal reality check when my own name was called regarding the situation at my school. You see, I was the one that person went to school with. That was me they were talking about.
That day, my mom called me, saying this was the most disappointed she had ever been in me. I was banned from internships for a year. Having never seen my mom that disappointed, I reflected on my life. I realized I have parents who work their asses off for my siblings and me to be successful. I also saw that I have younger siblings who need a better role model. I realized this was the moment I had to retire from this lifestyle and turn over a new leaf. I reflected and asked myself that day why I had even gotten involved in the first place.
Other factors, like people I know getting arrested left and right, and a near-death experience, also woke me up.
Someone I know arranged with a guy to get his SYEP card and cash it out. My friend took the card, they drove all the way near the DMV area, and my friend cashed out $90,000. Afterward, the guy called him and said, "Yo, where is my part of the money?" My friend told him off and hung up the phone. That same week, my friend posted on Instagram wearing a Louis Vuitton outfit in a luxury setting with two other guys. Currently, my friend is facing death threats and is being tracked. The guy explicitly said that when he catches him, he will kill him.
Seeing that behavior showed me how much of a liability this scamming lifestyle is. I could just be hanging around someone, and God forbid, someone could come and start shooting at us for something I had no hand in. People don't care whether you are the one who did an action or not; if you are with the person who did it, you are held accountable, too.
As a Muslim, I don’t believe in karma, but I do believe in your actions coming back to you. If you take from someone, one day it will happen to you. If you are too flashy, that is a liability.
One kid at my school always came in dripped out in designer clothes from shady dealings. Last year, he got robbed at gunpoint on the exact same block my school is on. A thought came to my head: it may not be tomorrow, it may not be next week, and it may not even be jail, but in some way, shape, or form, your actions have a big way of coming back to you. Looking back at this, I thank God I was spoken to harshly by the principal of my school rather than speaking to the police, facing 30 years in prison, or having people come for my life.
The momentum of this lifestyle spread quickly because bank scams are normalized in NYC youth culture and on social media. The SYEP scam was just one massive headline, but on platforms like Telegram, there are continuous cycles of different "plays." For me, the temptation to get involved wasn't just social media pressure. It was seeing kids holding thousands of dollars, wearing designer clothes, and gaining social clout. It made the fast-money scene look like a quick path to success. In an environment like that, having that kind of financial freedom meant you were instantly respected and seen as someone who was winning.
Understanding the effects of this lifestyle requires looking past the online clout and analyzing the actual mechanics of the financial crime industry. It operates on a continuous cycle of check fraud, mobile deposit manipulation, and bank drops. In my own experience navigating this scenario, I witnessed firsthand how these blueprints operate. People source and alter checks, exploiting the system before the bank even realizes what is happening, or they route illegal funds directly through youth payroll cards at ATMs.
The benefits of this were undeniable: being able to fund designer clothes, steakhouse dinners, and rolls of $100 bills. However, maintaining this income carried massive risks for anyone involved.
The word on the street shows a huge split in how kids view scamming. On TikTok, a video went viral with a kid saying, “We're making bread, we're printing money right now. If you work in SYEP, hit me up.” This kind of hype made thousands of kids think this was just an easy way to get money. It was addictive, but reality set in as soon as the banks detected it.
On my Instagram, another kid was crying because he was $500,000 in debt. Imagine being a teenager in high school and owing $500,000. You can't open a bank account, you have to use Cash App as your bank for the rest of your life, you have to pay that money back, and you can't apply for student loans for college. Your life is genuinely finished.
When interviewed, some people I know said about scamming: “It’s just fast money, shit was hitting like $15k a week.” Another said, “Money doesn't change whether it’s illegal or legal. Money is money.”
In the city, there are different types of scams. I'll speak about a few types of common scams people my age and older participate in. For example, there is this term called "clapping." Basically, when someone says they clapped something, they mean ordering something, such as Domino's, and then lying—saying they didn't get it—just to get a refund on it while keeping it.
There is clapping eats and clapping clothes. Clapping eats is very simple; all a person has to do is make a new Uber Eats account and order food. Then, when it comes, you claim you never received it, and you get the refund but keep the food. The only catch is you must make a brand-new Uber Eats account, use different card numbers, and likely different addresses, because this could result in your account being banned. This is similar for clapping clothes like Lululemon. Clapping is just a term for the refund method, and these Uber Eats drivers can get in trouble because of this. They can get suspended because the companies think the drivers stole the food.
Now moving onto a type of big scam which, if caught, will result in serious jail time. This type of scam is bank fraud. Remember the SYEP scam, where people took the SYEP payroll card and withdrew any amount of money they pleased, regardless of what was in there? This is basically like that.
On Instagram, it's common for NYC youth to be like, "Who got a Chev yo? Who got Chase? Who got BoA?" These guys read a course on Telegram from people who make these methods; these people are criminal hackers and masterminds that create these slips. Slips are basically fake checks. The individual buys the slip from these Telegram hackers and, from there, asks people for a bank card, then drops the slip into that account, and from there the money comes. Banks often credit the account a portion of the deposited check as a courtesy before the check clears the bank, so scammers take advantage of that and exploit the window to withdraw the cash before the bank even realizes the check was fake.
The person who hands their card over for their account is basically a money mule. Once the check bounces, their account goes into a massive negative balance. They owe the bank, and they have to pay that money back, but not the scammer from Instagram. The account holder will be flagged, making it impossible for them to open a legit bank account. Even if they claim they didn't know, handing over their account and PIN makes them an accomplice in this.
In general, maybe scamming is part of the city lifestyle. However, this is not going to retire our families. It’s too inconsistent; you cannot depend on it for life. You cannot have a big family car and own a house with scamming. As a Muslim I believe in your actions coming back to you. Even if one doesn't get caught in this world I believe it will come back to harm them in the afterlife.
Ultimately, leaving this lifestyle was the smartest decision I could have made. Growing up West African, we have strong values centered around going to school and building a real future. The second my name was called, I realized how deeply I had hurt my mom, and all the hype and designer clothes didn't matter to me anymore. Now, I have real goals: becoming a pilot and a real estate investor.