She reached out to Chase and T-Mobile, which acknowledged in writing “unauthorized activity” on her account, and filed a police report. Thomas then discovered that $21,916.41 had been withdrawn from her Chase checking account, a transaction she insists she didn’t make or authorize. Thomas shared documentation of the transactions with AARP. Bitcoins were purchased and sold through her Cash App account as well. She learned that requests for money were also sent out in her name to her contacts inside Cash App, some of whom sent money. Thomas was apparently a victim of a SIM swap attack, an all-too-common industrywide scam involving a hijacking of the Subscriber Identity Module chip card found inside smartphones, which links your phone number and account information to your mobile provider. A customer service representative replaced her phone’s SIM card.
This went on for two days before she returned home to New York and visited her carrier, T-Mobile. I could only see kind of what was going on.” I couldn’t make calls, I couldn’t receive calls.
“While we’re sitting there, I could see the transactions from the Cash App, but I couldn’t do anything about them,” says Thomas, 72. So they sent money to Thomas through the Cash App, a payment transfer app that acts like a debit card for small transactions, on her iPhone 11. Thomas’ sisters, who were also at the dinner, planned to pay a portion of the tab. Flight attendant Eunice Lockett Thomas couldn’t understand why her Chase debit card was declined in early June as she tried to pay a dinner bill while vacationing in Hilton Head, South Carolina.