WTF?! Digital identity fraud is far from something new, but this case shows just how extreme the repercussions can be. A Cash App account opened in someone else's name and used in scams could lead to an innocent person being sentenced to years in prison. The problem is that the company initially refused to provide information about the account because she couldn't prove that she was the owner.
In April, Amanda Smith was shocked to discover officers at her upstate Pennsylvania home with a warrant for her arrest, writes 404 Media. The alleged crime took place in Arkansas – more than a thousand miles away in a state she'd never visited. Smith was taken to the local jail, where she was locked up for three nights.
Her bail was initially set at $50,000, but Smith says authorities told her there was little point in paying it because they intended to extradite her to Arkansas anyway. After being released, she and her husband drove to Arkansas for a court appearance, where she was fingerprinted and photographed. Another $20,000 bail was imposed before she could return home.
Smith later discovered why she had been arrested: a scammer had tricked someone into sending $1,000 to a Cash App account, one that was in her name but controlled by a criminal.
It turned out that the account had been created using Smith's Social Security number and date of birth. But Smith, who describes herself as not tech-savvy, said she had never used Cash App.
The situation sounds like one that should have been resolved quickly. But Smith says she is still being asked to prove her innocence in an ongoing criminal case. One stumbling block was that Cash App refused to hand over details of the account to Smith because she couldn't prove she was the owner. She eventually received the data through discovery in her case.
Shockingly, Smith is now facing up to six years in prison for a crime she says she didn't commit and knew nothing about. The charges include computer fraud, unlawful use of a communication device, and theft of property. "They're trying to turn it into my problem [...] that I need to prove that I'm innocent," Smith told 404 Media. "That's not what I grew up believing was the way it worked."
Not too surprisingly, the fraud took place on that bastion of honest transactions, Facebook Marketplace. The buyer found items for sale and messaged the seller, who told them to send money to his wife's Cash App account. The name on the account was Amanda Smith.
Unfortunately, the seller's Facebook account had been hacked. There were no items for sale, and the Cash App account had been created just before the scam took place.
Cash App records also revealed what happened to the stolen money. Just hours after the $1,000 arrived, it was divided into smaller amounts and sent to a network of other accounts. Some appeared to be controlled by scammers, while others had changed their usernames, potentially making the money more difficult to trace.
Police obtained Smith's personal details from Cash App through a search warrant. A detective then obtained her driver's license and checked her information using Accurint, a LexisNexis database used by law enforcement. But having someone's details on an account isn't quite the same as proving they operated it.
And there were plenty of discrepancies. According to 404 Media's review, the address on the account was one where neither Smith nor her husband had ever lived. The account had also been accessed through Verizon connections, while Smith says she uses AT&T and has never had a Verizon plan.
There was also a discrepancy involving the phone used to create the account. Cash App's records showed an iPhone running iOS 16.1.1, an operating system dating back to 2022. Smith, however, provided evidence that her iPhone 13 mini was running the much newer iOS 26.5.2.
The phone number associated with the account raised further questions. Although Smith said she might have used it years earlier, 404 Media found it linked to her name in historical data breaches. Tellingly, someone had also used the same number to create a Venmo account under a different name around a week before the fraudulent Cash App account was opened.
Also read: Cash App reaches $45 million settlement over alleged failure to protect users from fraud
A private investigator hired by Smith has questioned whether police established that she actually controlled the account. Her lawyer is trying to have the case dismissed. Neither Cash App nor the prosecutor responded to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, authorities have offered Smith a plea deal including a $1,000 fine, $1,000 in restitution and three years' probation. She has refused, saying she is innocent. A hearing is scheduled for November.
This isn't the first time someone has ended up in jail because of another person's fraud. A grandmother was jailed for six months after facial recognition tech falsely linked her to a bank fraud case. She is now suing the City of Fargo and a Fargo Police Department detective for $10 million over the incident.