Someone Opened a CashApp in Her Name. She Faces Six Years.Someone Opened a CashApp In Her Name. She Faces Years in Prison

A scammer used Amanda Smith's Social Security number and date of birth to open a CashApp account that received $1,000 from a Facebook Marketplace victim, and police arrested her on charges that could put her in prison for six years.

One afternoon in April, Amanda Smith opened her door in upstate Pennsylvania to find the local Sheriff's department standing there. They had a warrant for her arrest for computer fraud allegedly committed more than a thousand miles away in Arkansas. She had never been to Arkansas, and by her own admission she is not a tech-savvy person.

The scammer used her name to collect

The case began in February, when someone in Arkansas reported that a seller on Facebook Marketplace had told them to send money to his wife's CashApp account, which was in the name Amanda Smith. The seller's account had been hacked and the items did not exist.

The CashApp account had been created just two weeks before the scam, using Smith's Social Security number and date of birth. Police served a search warrant on Block, which owns CashApp, and the data that came back led them to the 47-year-old Amanda Smith.

She has to prove she is not herself

Smith spent three nights in the county jail with the lights on and a guard flashing a light into her cell every hour. She was then taken to court in chains, and bail was set at $50,000.

When she later saw the case materials, she found the Philadelphia address on the account was one she had never lived at, the phone number was not hers, and the device was an iPhone running a 2022 operating system while she uses a newer phone. The IP addresses used to create the account and during the scam came from Verizon; she has always been on AT&T.

When she first contacted CashApp for information about the account, it refused, saying she could not prove she was the owner. A Kafkaesque loop.

Prosecutors offered a plea deal: a fine, restitution and three years of probation. Smith refused, saying she is innocent. A hearing is scheduled for November.