Thousands of people may have taken advantage of the so-called glitch, which was actually a form of cheque fraud which briefly became a viral sensation on TikTok and other social media platforms in August.

The inadvertent fraudsters were taking advantage of a banking error which meant that a bad cheque could be deposited into an account and the cash withdrawn immediately without having to wait for the cheque to clear.

JPMorgan Chase has now filed lawsuits in at least three US federal courts against customers who took part, CNBC reports.

One man in Houston is alleged to owe the bank over $290,000 which he withdrew from his account after an unidentified masked accomplice deposited a counterfeit $335,000 cheque.

Other cases in Miami and California involve amounts of between $80,000 and $141,000.

The bank says it is still investigating thousands of other possible cases.