RIDEGURU
Drivers are seeing more fake names coming up on rider accounts. A few names have been D!@k Swallower, Satan, Killer, the boss, the man Little M, F, M, TotheWindow, Captain America and many more. Drivers are not accepting your request or are cancelling your trip. Drivers are not safe as it is out there. You can sign up with an Uber gift card, a Visa gift card, and then put any name you want. Many drivers will not accept your request or they will cancel on you. If you have a fake name be prepared to possibly have longer wait, times, drivers cancelling on you, or be rated less than 5 stars. You may think its funny, cool, or whatever but all your doing is pissing off drivers and making them feel unsafe. Please stop doing this.
Riders, Why are you putting fake names on your Uber & Lyft account? Be prepared for longer wait times or getting cancelled.
Posted 5 years, 4 months ago
Posted In
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Do you have comments or questions to people who take rideshares? Any driver advice for your passengers or other ridehailers? Share your thoughts, feedback, complaints and have them be heard by real rideshare riders.
Posted By
Monica Castleberry (momof4)
8198
Rider
Driver
Ride Expert from Philadelphia PA
Mom & Nursing Student by day Ride Share Driver by night always on the go
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Comments
This reminds me of the HotSpot name at a crowded airport. It had the ID, “yell penis for free WiFi.”
Found it
That is funny. Has anyone responded?
How about U/L only allow pax to register with a valid driver's license? It's required for the driver. I've had my share of those fake names, pass the ping to an 🐜.
My recollection serves me correctly, didn’t they used to require it? And the full name would appear to the drivers.
I also remember how this became a problem because drivers were allegedly cherry picking up riders based on race and gender.
They did but in their haste to grow rider base, they allow anyone with a valid CC. I cherry pick with the info on the ping screen. Such as pickup location, pax rating, distance to pickup. Once I accept a ride it’s rare that I cancel unless they’re super drunk or super late. My car my rules. If you show up to pick someone up and cancel, you waisted your time and gas as well as the pax.
If we took that route, we are getting into a weird world where you need ID to use common services. If taxis, is it restaurant and schools next?
Anyone remember when Trump suggested under his rule, we wouldn’t be need ID to buy groceries? That was messed up.
What about people without driver licenses?
Maybe any government issued IDs.
I don't pick people up with stupid obviously fake names. If you want to be clever you can do it somewhere else but not in my car.
When I see some of these names I assume its a teenager, drunk young 20 something, immature idiot who thinks they are funny, or someone I am just not picking up. I'ts not worth wasting my time & gas to take the fool .5 up the road to the corner bar or the .5 mile home dealing with their dumb drunk ass.
Yup me too. Exactly that.
😊 Drivers when we decline the fools with BS names
😥😴😡 Riders with fake names that wait an extra 30 min for a ride too stupid to realize why its taking so long
This baffles me as well. Riders demand safety. They make a big deal about "what's my name" and other crap like that, but they refuse to extend the same courtesies to their drivers. My safety in my vehicle comes first.
I am not picking anybody up with a fake name. In Lyft when I see it I decline. Uber once I accept trip and see the name is fake I'll cancel. My problem is mostly with Lyft I dont see it as much on Uber. I am not pulling up and saying, " are you D!@kSwallower, The Man, Killer, Satan". Dint these riders see they are waiting longer for pick up or getting cancelled. Uber and Lyft need to make riders sign up with valid State ID & credit card. Then they can add gift cards to use. This is so not fair to drivers. The only safety we have is to check their name and rating. Nothing else. We roll the dice on every trip. I dont see why they cant do this. Something as simple as making them use their real damn name. As I am responding to your post I accidentally accepted an Uber request with a 4.17 rating. The name was BigJohnson. I obviously cancelled. It's probably a minor under 18 who thinks they are funny or a young college kid. Now that I think about I havent had any…
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I am not picking anybody up with a fake name. In Lyft when I see it I decline. Uber once I accept trip and see the name is fake I'll cancel. My problem is mostly with Lyft I dont see it as much on Uber. I am not pulling up and saying, " are you D!@kSwallower, The Man, Killer, Satan". Dint these riders see they are waiting longer for pick up or getting cancelled. Uber and Lyft need to make riders sign up with valid State ID & credit card. Then they can add gift cards to use. This is so not fair to drivers. The only safety we have is to check their name and rating. Nothing else. We roll the dice on every trip. I dont see why they cant do this. Something as simple as making them use their real damn name. As I am responding to your post I accidentally accepted an Uber request with a 4.17 rating. The name was BigJohnson. I obviously cancelled. It's probably a minor under 18 who thinks they are funny or a young college kid. Now that I think about I havent had any female fake names. I should've went to pick up location sat up the street waited 5, cancelled, and left. You want to do stupid crap like that you deserve to get charged. Something needs to change. I gave up the bar crowds. Stick to family and business men and women. Some are self entitled and treat you like your their personal car service but most are nice & respectful.
One other thing I wish riders would stop. "I'll tip you in the app", "I'll tip you big in the app", or (2 passengers) "John we have to tip her in the app, she was the best driver we ever had". I just want to laugh at them. Why bother to say you will tip and then not follow through?
RIDERS
WHY DO YOU TELL DRIVERS YOU WILL TIP THEM IN THE APP? AND NOT FOLLOW THROUGH? Do you know how many times we hear this maybe 1 in 5 will follow through. What is the purpose of saying it? What do you think we will do or not do if you say "I'll tip you in the app"
Is there a passenger out there on the guru forum who does this please please explain why. Post your answer anonymously but please answer:) We are all curious.
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People scare riders with low ratings that their wait time will be longer (i.e. the time it takes for the driver to accept), but it’s literally a difference of 5 seconds and 30 seconds.
I heard this is because the driver gets fifteen seconds to decline. Hence even two denial will be 30+ seconds. Ain’t bad since we have to wait 5-10 minutes for the ride anyways. Sorry. Not trying to be mean.
Your forgetting if the 1st driver is 5 min away & declines, the next driver may be 10 min away & declines, and lts say the 3rd driver is 20 min away but accepts your request. I can tell you from experience I've had low rated rider request come in I decline, 5 min later it pings my phone again, again I decline, 7 min later it pings my phone again, again I decline, 20 min later it pings my phone again I decline. Once a driver finally accepts he could be 5 min to 30 min from your location. You all ready waited for me to decline 4X in 20 min and I think its safe to say if it hits my phone 4X quite a few drivers are declining the trip How is that not a longer wait? I am not trying to "scare" anyone. I am just saying what really goes on. Do you think all drivers meet up and plan what we can post to scare riders? I can assure you that doesnt happen. I could care less what a rider rating is. If it's below the rating I feel is too low for me to go pick up I decl…
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Your forgetting if the 1st driver is 5 min away & declines, the next driver may be 10 min away & declines, and lts say the 3rd driver is 20 min away but accepts your request. I can tell you from experience I've had low rated rider request come in I decline, 5 min later it pings my phone again, again I decline, 7 min later it pings my phone again, again I decline, 20 min later it pings my phone again I decline. Once a driver finally accepts he could be 5 min to 30 min from your location. You all ready waited for me to decline 4X in 20 min and I think its safe to say if it hits my phone 4X quite a few drivers are declining the trip How is that not a longer wait? I am not trying to "scare" anyone. I am just saying what really goes on. Do you think all drivers meet up and plan what we can post to scare riders? I can assure you that doesnt happen. I could care less what a rider rating is. If it's below the rating I feel is too low for me to go pick up I decline. It really makes no difference to me. I am in a warm dry car in the rain and a cool dry car in the hot summer. I decline your ride 10 others are right behind yours. I am not trying to be mean. Drivers dont sit around to make up lies to scare riders. You may have to wait longer. However some drivers dont care about the ratings and some are new so they havent figured out it may be in their best interest to decline low rated riders. If you had a choice of a 4.95 rated driver and a 4.40 driver which one would you choose?
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good point but the reality is that we all seem to get rides pretty quickly. Mine isn’t great at 4.67 but have no trouble.
Quick question. Does the request ever go back to the drivers who have already declined?
Another one. Is there ever a situation where I wouldn’t get a ride eventually because too many drivers declined? Or the distance of the potential drivers got too far?) Maybe I should create another thread for this.
Like any drivers, I refuse all ride requests from passengers with ratings of 4.7 or below. NO EXCEPTIONS.
To get your passenger rating that low requires multiple bad ratings from drivers, and it's not worth my time to pick up a potential problem passenger when a ride request from a lower risk passenger is right around the corner.
Yes rider request can go back to a driver that all ready declined. I've had request come back to me 4X over 20 min.
I did create a question.
https://ride.guru/lounge/p/is-there-ever-a-situation-where-i-wouldnt-get-a-ride-because-too-many-nearby-drivers-declined-1
One other thing passengers do not realize is that in their opinion a driver rated 4.40 or 4.94 is still good.
They will think a 2.1 is a bad driver.
Any driver with a rating of 4.40 (if the platform allows them to drive) may as well be considered a 2.6, as at 4.60 drivers get canned:)
I too do not pick up any low rated passengers and obviously made up names. I had one last night come in from GoGo Grandparents, thought it was a name created by some smart ass grandpa for his account, but turns out it is a service where people without smartphones call in and that GoGoGrandparents servce orders them a Lyft obviously charging them a hefty service fee, like $15 on top of a $50 ride. few rides like that and these non smart phone folks could have paid for a cheap sart phone with all the moneys they waste in surcharges
I’m going to make my handle, “I tip very well.”
Joking, of course.
For even better results make it
“I’ll Tip You In The App”
Guarantee you will get the shortest times, lol
Well, as a female, I was actually instructed to only put my first initial so the drivers wouldn’t be able to plan doing anything weird.
If you don't trust drivers, how can you possibly justify requesting a ride in our cars?
We do what we can do protect ourselves, right? Of course, there is a level of trust, but it's naive to think we can trust every driver fully .
Trust is a two way street. You're requesting a ride in my car, sitting behind me, and you think that you're the one that needs trust? Really?
For every over hyped media story about dangerous drivers, there are dozens of untold stories of drivers being assaulted, and even killed, by the people in their back seat. Your driver is much more at risk than you are.
Bart: Uh, yes, I'm looking for a friend of mine. Last name Jass. First name Hugh.
😂
To drivers, this is a profession. You approach it seriously. To riders, this is just a routine to get around. You approach it casually and with some humor.
They think it’s victimless and perhaps injects humor into the interactions. (A bit crass looking at your examples, sure.) I don’t think it crosses their mind that this can be a safety issue or slower pick up.
Thankfully its rare I pick up young drunk people anymore. It seems that its young people who go out drinking or its underage passengers (all the more reason not to pick them up) that use fake names. I am willing to bet the riders with fake names are the same idiots who jump into their Uber without making sure they have right car or that the car is really an Uber. My riders are more mature and grew out of that childish stage. Most of my riders are 22 yrs of age & up traveling for business or traveling with their family.
This is a real safety issue for drivers. Riders need to wake up. Not only are drivers at risk but so are the riders. Unfortunately female riders have been raped, inappropriately touched, and murdered. You are getting in a strangers car. Grabbing an Uber or Lyft should be taken seriously its not a game, its not s joke real $hi+ happens. Wise up!
I didn't even know you could do this. Don't they just verify it off of your credit card on file or something?
They can use a Visa GC or Uber GC. When a rider signs up they basically can make it all up. Get deactivated for low rating and be back on platform in 10 min under new name, email, Visa Debit card you buy anywhere that sells them. So when I pick up "killer" or "the boss" they can hack me up, stuff me into a bucket and throw me to the sharks. Killer or the boss wouldnt be found because there is no info on them in the app. Uber and Lyft dont care about drivers. 150 more drivers will sign up before the sharks finish me off. A pregnant woman and her unborn baby were killed in Arizona a few months ago Lyft didnt even come out with a statement. I am certain they didnt send any money to her 3 other small children. Probably sent a letter saying we are sorry and rider was deactivated until he signs up with new name and gc. In reality they probably never deactivated her killer. They have no respect whatsoever nor do they care about drivers. As she lay bleeding to death they probably were threatening to deactivate her for missing request.
You are giving them way too much credit. They want to keep all paying customers. :)
also, i wonder if there is an element of FTC in here. They may not be able to force people to use their real names as these "names" are being shared to drivers and potentially others.
It's the kids these days. Low effort humor is all they know.
True. Everything is a joke. Thats my theory its minors, young drunk college kids, or extremely immature adults. Everyone wants to protect the riders but dont give a crap about drivers. Riders have all our info on their phone but too drunk, lazy, or impatient to actually verify it. Drivers ask that riders put their real name. Apparently for some people Uber doesn't require it so why not use a fake name? They want to be anonymous. Why because they are super special (thats what mommy & daddys been telling them) . Other than knowing I am not picking up a minor, an immature adult, or a possible problem rider. I need your name to address you properly (I have respect), make sure I have the correct rider. Once you leave my car ask me 20 min later what the persons name was from my last trip? Not a clue. It doesnt matter anymore their trip is over. I dont like being sarcastic towards people that post but 2 comments on here 1 more so than the other is a wise @$$. So just returning the attitude. Sorry Chicago I just went to agree with your post:) Went on my soapbox:)
I identify as female so when riding Lyft I pefer them to use the female name I want to be called I also see it as a security measure for the customer to know that they have the right ride. I believe other people might also use fake name cause it might be easier for a driver to pronounce. Which is similar to getting a Starbucks drink
You mean like this? I think it's because it's funny and it's victimless. Fun for all parties.
It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. The name is one mechanism we all have for safety.
You may think its funny for all involved but most drivers will not agree. All we get is a name and rating. There is no safety at all for drivers. Suppose a rider does something and police need to be contacted? Officer can you go find killer, M, K, Tothewindow or D!@kSw@!!0w$r? Most drivers will pass up the fake names.
I had no idea this was a thing. I wonder if people think it is more of a screenname? We live in such a digital age where everyone is just used to screen names, maybe using their real name felt weird or perhaps the millenials are forgetting their real names altogether...
No shortage of jerkoff riders
Many women are being harassed and stalked by their drivers after being dropped off so I searched “Can I make a fake persona on Uber for safety purposes, which led me here. My usual go-to is generating a fake persona for other sites/apps so I cannot be traced as I have indeed had a stalker before and certainly so not wish to experience that again for myself or my daughter. It would be very helpful for ride share apps to find ways of making the identities of women masked to male drivers so they cannot use the info in the app to then stalk and harass using phone number, finding on social media etc.
Last night, I had a ride request for a person named k at 3:00 am in the morning. Got to the location and it was a bad section of town. The person called me and asked me if I was close. I said yes but the name on the account said it was k and asked if that was the person's name and they said it was short for Kimberly and the ride was for someone else. I said I am canceling the ride and said sorry. I am not getting robbed, carjacked or killed. Use your spidey sense. Bad area, bad people go hand in hand.
LOL I actually think this is kind of funny.
I think its really funny and entertaining when I decline "the man" or "d!@ksw@!!ower" 4X over a 20/30 min period along with every other driver. They are too stupid to realize that because of their fake name no one wants to pick them up. It's a safety issue. "The Man" becomes "the man walking" "the man standing in pouring rain with no ride". Thats when it really gets funny🙂
I am a rider, and I don't know about the rest of the riders why do they so?. Though I never used a fake name for the ride and I am genuine Uber and Lyft rider.
This is a small incident that I have faced and I want to share because your question reminds me of that funny incident.
There was a small family gathering at that time and my mom and dad getting ready for the airport and as usual I was going to book Uber because Uber it always the best and first choice for me while traveling.
I opened the Uber application and driver was hardly 5-7 minutes away from my pickup location and I request for the ride and driver accepted it, then 2 minutes later he cancelled the ride. I thought he had his own reasons. I again request for the ride and nobody was accepting my requests.
I played the trick, I opened my sister Uber account and you can guess what would happen next. The same driver is on the way to my home without any excuses and cancellation and after at my pick up location and I asked him a…
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I am a rider, and I don't know about the rest of the riders why do they so?. Though I never used a fake name for the ride and I am genuine Uber and Lyft rider.
This is a small incident that I have faced and I want to share because your question reminds me of that funny incident.
There was a small family gathering at that time and my mom and dad getting ready for the airport and as usual I was going to book Uber because Uber it always the best and first choice for me while traveling.
I opened the Uber application and driver was hardly 5-7 minutes away from my pickup location and I request for the ride and driver accepted it, then 2 minutes later he cancelled the ride. I thought he had his own reasons. I again request for the ride and nobody was accepting my requests.
I played the trick, I opened my sister Uber account and you can guess what would happen next. The same driver is on the way to my home without any excuses and cancellation and after at my pick up location and I asked him and told him everything, then he started making excuses traffic was high and he thought that it would maybe an urgent trip that is the reason he arrived.
My mom and dad arrived at the airport on time, sometimes I am wondering should I thanked my sister or the driver.
I asked many of friends to play the same tricks and you will only face such situation or urgency during the trip.
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There's a pretty good chance that you have a low passenger rating, but your sister has a good rating. Sometimes I accidentally accept a low rated rider, and I will cancel on them when I realize my error.
Who knows why some drivers do what they do. If it was Lyft I may of had an answer for you. Since it was Uber I dont. On lyft when the driver gets close to you say around the block they can click "arrived" they are then able to see your destination. Too long, too short, somewhere they dont want to go they will cancel. They cant do this on too many trips as cancellations can get you into some trouble. We do have some leeway though. Last week I was on both apps, Uber & Lyft. I accepted the Uber request as it was first and I was going to sign off on Lyft when a request came through for the same person. So I declined Lyft shut it off went to pickup. After the guy, his family, and his luggage were all in the car and I started the trip I said, "btw I seen you also ordered Lyft", you playing the see who gets there first game"? He had no idea what to say. Came up with some story. Lol Then he said, "why didnt you accept"? I said I accepted on Uber had I accepted Lyft also you may have been charged a cancellation fee. We noth laughed. It happens to drivers all the time. I guess we both play games:)
In the last several days I had 4 riders with accounts that had non working phone numbers. I cancelled another because when I called they said they had not ordered and Uber and it must be someone else with the same number. Reason: "I did not feel safe" and I called in to have them deactivated. Two were from China and I am not sure why the numbers did not work. Frankly it scares me a little when the numbers are not in service. You are right. As drivers we get no reliable information about the riders.
Be careful lots of scams going on. Remember Uber will not call you. It is extremely rare. They will usually only call you after you notified them of an issue. As far as riders go if they names look fake to you dont risk it. Its not worth 10.00. You did the right thing. Happy to hear they nothing went wrong. What city are you in?
Why would someone put a fake name on their account? Maybe it is because of security, they don't want drivers knowing their real names especially when many passengers get picked up from home.
Sorry, Get real.
It's only a first name that drivers see. We never see a last name. Once the trip is over the name is gone. If a driver is going to do something its usually done while on the ride. What could a driver really do with just a 1st name? When drivers complain about fake names its because the name is totally made up. All the avengers names have been used, the man, the boss, tothewindow, d!c%swa!!@wer, and other foul names. These are the names that we are complaining about. I am not going to pull up and say are you #####? If passengers are so concerned about drivers knowing their first name they may want to consider a different mode of transportation. If riders didnt want the real name whats wrong with using Bob, John, Karen, why use foul language or ridiculous names? How would you feel at 2am driving to pick d!@k$wallow%r up on a dark road when no other cars or people around? Riders want safety measures in place but it seems no one cares about the driver. Many drivers have been ass…
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It's only a first name that drivers see. We never see a last name. Once the trip is over the name is gone. If a driver is going to do something its usually done while on the ride. What could a driver really do with just a 1st name? When drivers complain about fake names its because the name is totally made up. All the avengers names have been used, the man, the boss, tothewindow, d!c%swa!!@wer, and other foul names. These are the names that we are complaining about. I am not going to pull up and say are you #####? If passengers are so concerned about drivers knowing their first name they may want to consider a different mode of transportation. If riders didnt want the real name whats wrong with using Bob, John, Karen, why use foul language or ridiculous names? How would you feel at 2am driving to pick d!@k$wallow%r up on a dark road when no other cars or people around? Riders want safety measures in place but it seems no one cares about the driver. Many drivers have been assulted, groped, and killed. Riders have our info in there app for years. Pic, name, license plate car make & model. It should go both ways drivers and riders need to feel and be safe.
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Because it’s funny.
And there’s always advantages in anonymity. If Uber doesn’t require it, why not?
Sure just like clay claymore is funny, not.
Clay is either a minor, drunk college kid, or immature adult. Pick one.
Clay claymore not funny, drunk, stupid college kid. Thinks he is funny. His name on the app is probably douche bag.
I was going to respond but not worth my time.