Brazilian gang defrauds Uber, Lyft, DoorDash using GPS spoofing and stolen IDs

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40 points·arkadiyt··4 comments

I used to work at Uber. This is not uncommon. Back when Uber was operating in china this was a massive problem - there would be farms and farms of fraudsters using the driver perks that Uber handed out to make crazy money.

> The group would usually collect funds from the ride-hailing and food delivery platforms in their bank accounts, withdraw weekly renting commissions, and then send the money to the drivers who rented the fake accounts and were doing the actual driving.

Wait, who paid the rent to who?

Are people not eligible for Uber/Lyft driver accounts such a huge market to make hundreds of thousands dollars out of this scheme? What kind of people would use this service, i.e. pay rent for fake Uber account?

There was pressure on Uber/Lyft to perform background checks and screen drivers, so these are likely drivers who are screened out. And yes, oddly enough, Uber, Lyft and these other platforms functioned as a type of safety net -- all you need is to know how to drive, they will even arrange a car rental for you -- allowing many people who would have difficulty finding other jobs work. Particularly those who have odd hours. Once they are locked out, that creates demand for something else.

Pretty common in India as well. 3-4 years back people used fo abuse gps like crazy when uber/ ola targets were defined by number of rides and KMs done per day. Then they removed bonuses entirely and there was a sharp decline in rides done and KMs driven.

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