logoalt Hacker News

coldtea • today at 2:07 PM • 3 replies • view on HN

>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.

And that brings $50,000 bail and days spend in jail before trial? Should just be a civic matter at worst.

>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.

Surely some details about her are the same as in the account profile, and not just the name, else they wouldn't prosecute her for an app account that bears no relation to her. Do they prosecute people just for something happening on the same name and surname as them?

If the account had others details about here to fool people, like her photo or SSN or address, she should have got access to the account, without having to demand it via discovery.


Replies

bluGill • today at 2:44 PM

> she should have got access to the account, without having to demand it via discovery.

Even if she can (which is probably the case), she wants to go through discovery so there is a paper trail of going through a process. If she does this by any other means she depends on them to have the records of that process to prove she didn't have access to the account at the time. By going through discovery there is a trail of when she transferred access to her name and so it is on them to prove she had access to the account before that date.

➕ show 1 reply
trollbridge • today at 2:15 PM

To get access to the account probably required using e-mail or phone number to match 2FA for a password reset.

skinfaxi • today at 2:10 PM

> If the account had others details about here to fool people, like her photo or SSN or address, she should have got access to the account, without having to demand it via discovery.

Did you read the quote you quoted? Your quote says the account was created with her social and date of birth.

➕ show 1 reply