David Smith, 21, of Stamford, posted a $250,000 bond following a hearing at state Superior Court in Stamford.
Under the conditions of his release, Smith will undergo 24-hour GPS monitoring, as well as other intensive pretrial monitoring. He is also prohibited from using any “internet-capable” devices.
Smith was arrested earlier this month in Mount Vernon, N.Y., on a fugitive of justice warrant stemming from Stamford on charges of first-degree larceny, third-degree identity theft, two counts of second-degree forgery, trafficking in personal identifying information and first-degree computer crime.
Stamford police investigators Michael Stempien and Vanessa Lynn wrote in an affidavit that Smith allegedly was running a sophisticated phishing scheme, which began in June 2020, where he would call in a DoorDash order, usually in California, and have it sent to a nearby California address. At a certain point during the delivery, Smith would call the DoorDash driver “using an app to mimic the DoorDash support number,” according to the affidavit.
“Smith would then impersonate DoorDash support and notify the driver via phone and text that the order they were about to pick up was placed with a stolen card and that they’ve frozen their DoorDash account as result of this,” Stempien and Lynn wrote. “Smith would tell the driver they would need to be verified in order to resolve this issue.”
Smith would then send a verification code or text a link containing a phishing site that he had created that mimicked the DoorDash website, according to affidavit.
“It was Smith’s goal to gain unauthorized access to the victim’s DoorDash account using either of these methods,” the affidavit said.
Once Smith gained access to their accounts, he would change that employee’s banking information to one of the payment cards in his possession, according to the affidavit.
“He would then trigger a cash out to that card and thus steal the victim’s delivery money that had been pooled in their account. He would explain to the victim that due to the delivery issue they wouldn’t be getting their paycheck on time and it would be several days late,” Stempien and Lynn wrote. “This would cause the victims a delay in realizing their paychecks had been stolen and hinder their ability to recover their funds.”
Based on banking information obtained by police, they believe Smith may have “successfully repeated this scam” on more than 700 DoorDash drivers, the affidavit said. Stempien and Lynn wrote in the affidavit that they believe Smith stole “in excess of $950,000” while perpetrating the scheme.
Police claimed in the affidavit that information found on Smith’s many cellphones corroborated the findings of their investigation.
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