It took less than three days for $17 million to disappear from A.T.M.s across New York in a scam that went viral on TikTok and city officials say is linked to a youth jobs program, according to two law enforcement officials briefed on the matter.

The withdrawals, using payment cards issued to thousands of young people in the program, should have given users access to only that week’s earnings — perhaps several hundred dollars at most. Instead, they opened a spigot of unlimited cash available in sums of $10,000, $20,000 and even $40,000 per A.T.M.

There were as many as 30,000 cards issued to 14- to 24-year-olds who could not be paid via direct deposit. The fraudulent use, from July 11 to 13, is being investigated by the city agency that oversees the program and by the Police Department’s Financial Crimes Task Force.

Some of the young people in the program were selling their cards for $1,000 apiece, according to the law enforcement officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about an active investigation.

In videos on TikTok and Instagram around the time the scam was underway, some teenagers and adults boasted about it and encouraged people to sell their cards to them.

“We’re making bread, we’re printing money right now,” one man said in a video posted on TikTok. Referring to the jobs program, the Summer Youth Employment Program, he added: “If you work S.Y.E.P., hit me up.”