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Woman faces years in prison over a Cash App account she says she never opened
A Cash App account opened in her name has left Amanda Smith facing criminal charges and potentially up to six years in prison.
404 Media reports that Smith says someone used her Social Security number (SSN) and date of birth to create an account that received money from a Facebook Marketplace scam.
Allegedly, a buyer sent $1,000 for items that weren’t really for sale. A scammer had taken over someone else’s Facebook account and directed the buyer to pay a Cash App account in Smith’s name.
Investigators obtained account information from Block, Cash App’s parent company. That information included Smith’s Social Security number and date of birth. Police subsequently arrested her in Pennsylvania over the alleged crime in Arkansas, a state she says she had never visited.
She spent three nights in jail. But 404 Media’s review of account records found that several account details, including the address and network used, did not match her own.
Smith also described a frustrating obstacle when she tried to investigate:
“Cash App refused to provide me with any information about the account, because I couldn’t prove that I was the owner.”
The account was associated with her closely enough to contribute to her arrest, yet she said she could not get information directly from the company. She later received account records through the criminal case.
It’s a disturbing reminder that the consequences of identity theft can go well beyond an unfamiliar charge on your bank statement. You could also find yourself accused of a crime committed using your details.
Smith suspects that information exposed in a data breach may have been used to impersonate her. When investigating, 404 Media found the phone number used for the account linked to an Amanda Smith in older breach data. They also found someone made a Venmo account using the same phone number but under another name entirely.
The source of her Social Security number and date of birth hasn’t been established, and her case is ongoing. Her experience highlights why it matters to know which of your details have been exposed.
How to protect yourself
The practical lesson is to look beyond the headline that a company “lost customer data.” What matters is which information was exposed, because different exposures call for different responses. Our guide for how to handle being involved in a data breach recommends checking the affected company’s official information before deciding what to do next.
The steps depend on the type of data that was stolen or leaked:
- Email addresses and phone numbers: Be alert for phishing messages and scam calls, including messages that refer to the breach.
- Passwords: Change the affected password and anywhere else you reused it. Enable multifactor authentication where available.
- Payment or banking details: Contact the relevant financial institution and review your accounts for unauthorized activity.
- Social Security numbers and other identifying information: Check your credit reports for unfamiliar accounts. In the US, you can freeze your credit for free with each of the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. This helps prevent new credit accounts being opened in your name, but does not prevent every type of identity misuse.
If you discover an account opened in your name, contact the company’s fraud department through its official website and report the identity theft (in the US you can do that at IdentityTheft.gov). Keep copies of your reports and correspondence, and ask for written confirmation when the fraudulent account is closed.
A breach-checking service can help you identify known exposures linked to your information. Malwarebytes’ Digital Footprint Scan, for example, checks for exposures associated with your email address.
What do cybercriminals know about you?
Use Malwarebytes’ free Digital Footprint scan to see whether your personal information has been exposed online.
