Amanda Smith, a woman from upstate Pennsylvania, was shocked in April when officers arrived at her home with a warrant for her arrest. The alleged crime took place in Arkansas, more than a thousand miles away in a state she had never visited. Smith was held in the local jail for three nights. Her bail was initially set at $50,000, but she says authorities told her there was little point in paying it because they intended to extradite her to Arkansas anyway.
After her release, Smith 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 learned why she had been arrested. A scammer had tricked a Facebook Marketplace buyer into sending $1,000 to a Cash App account in her name. The account had been created using Smith's Social Security number and date of birth, yet she says she has never used Cash App and describes herself as not tech-savvy.
Cash App initially refused to share the account details with Smith because she could not prove she was the owner. She eventually received the data through discovery in her case. Smith now faces up to six years in prison on charges including 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," she told 404 Media.
The records contain several discrepancies. The account address is one where neither Smith nor her husband has lived, and it was accessed through Verizon connections, while Smith uses AT&T. The device used to create the account also ran an operating system that does not match the iPhone 13 mini Smith provided as evidence.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing