‘No choice’: Aussie’s horror Uber ordeal
Uber has issued a terrifying reminder to Australians off the back of a young woman’s viral warning after being scammed by a driver.
Uber has responded after a woman went viral on social media, talking about her confronting experience with the platform.
Darley, an Aussie DJ, took to TikTok last week after an experience with a Melbourne Uber driver which left her shaken.
Darley said she arrived in Melbourne on November 19 and, initially, everything seemed normal. She had a PIN from Uber, which she was supposed to give to the driver to verify the trip through the app.
However, once she got in the car, she knew something was wrong.
“He said, ‘Your PIN number isn’t working’, and I was like ‘Oh, that’s weird. That’s never happened to me before. I use this all the time’,” she explained in her initial video.
Darley’s driver then asked her to cancel and rebook the trip – increasing the cost from $70 to over $100. Then, when this second PIN allegedly didn’t work, he asked her to rebook it again for a whopping $120, and said he’d pull over and call Uber support.
On the side of the highway, Darley said she felt even more stuck, with luggage in the back, no way to get another Uber, and a ‘support’ person – who was really not from Uber at all – on speaker phone, who ultimately encouraged her to do a bank transfer with her driver.
Despite feeling uneasy about the situation, she was again led to believe that it was the norm, and that she didn’t have a choice but to go along with it.
“I’m thinking, this is really weird. I’ve never heard of [a business like this] asking for a bank transfer from a client,” she said.
“Mind you, I don’t have any of this person’s details. I don’t know his name, I don’t have his licence plates.”
Darley contacted her partner as she watched Google Maps, heading in the direction of her destination. Ultimately, she gave the $120 to the driver when they arrived, along with her email address, as he’d promised to send her a receipt.
She said she knew from the beginning that something was off, but as she and her partner began asking their friends, and her videos started to go viral, it became extremely apparent that this was no amateur hustle.
Aussies flooded to her comments section, sharing their own stories of Uber drivers showing up with an EFTPOS machine in hand, or being forced to walk kilometres on the side of the road after refusing to pay up.
Thankfully, Darley managed to snap a photo of the driver’s licence plate as she was dropped off, and lodge a complaint with Uber, who were able to deactivate the driver’s account. This was later confirmed by the driver, who used her email address from earlier to beg for forgiveness.
She also called her bank, who flagged the driver’s bank account, and she took the issue to the police.
In a statement to news.com.au, Uber said that actions like those of this driver are a clear breach of community guidelines, and could result in harsh consequences.
“Fraudulent activity such as driver-partners encouraging riders to pay for a trip outside of the Uber platform is a clear breach of Uber’s Community Guidelines and this kind of behaviour can result in driver-partners permanently losing access to the app,” a spokesperson said.
It is also understood that Uber compensated Darley for the payment she made to the driver.
Uber encouraged riders at Melbourne airport to always confirm their PIN prior to getting into a vehicle, or loading any luggage, to ensure that they can avoid this situation, in partnership with their other rider safety features.
“At Uber, rider safety is paramount, and we have robust technology and features to improve safety before, during, and after every trip. However, for these features to be effective, riders must ensure they’re in the correct vehicle by verifying trip details in the app before getting in,” the spokesperson shared.
“We encourage riders not to enter a vehicle without verifying it beforehand with details provided in the app, this includes confirming the driver’s photo, number plate, and vehicle type, or with the six-digit PIN code at Melbourne Airport. If details don’t match, they should report it to Uber’s on the ground team at the airport, to the airport security, or via the help section in the Uber app.”
Originally published as ‘No choice’: Aussie’s horror Uber ordeal
