RIDEGURU
What are some Uber driver tricks? Are they scam? I heard there's a bunch.
Posted 6 years ago
Posted In
Rideshare Scams
Discuss known or suspected scams in the rideshare industry. Share your experience here.
Posted By
HuhnHuhn
127
Rider
Ride Apprentice
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The Guru Take
This reminds us of the last few posts
5 Rider Scams that Game the System - Drivers watch out!
Lots of Driver Scams - Watch out, passengers!
ippei
1202
Uber Driver, CEO of TaxiFareFinder and Unleashed, LLC
Comments
Do not text passenger upon arrival trick.
Here's my contribution to this thread. Dont' judge me. I noticed that when you go pick up a customer, say towards the earlier side of the night and people are leaving their homes, most riders will NOT come out unless you call or text them. (Drivers usually do, so you take advantage.)
So when you arrive at the destination and you see no one, you just sit there. and wait. After 1 or 2 minutes, the meter will start running. Hey, why not?! Not your fault. and on their app, it says I have arrived, so there's zero guilt.
....but yes, this works too well and I feel guilty.
so scammy part of this is that the driver does NOT text you to come out of the house? Hardly a scam. I mean the Uber app (on the rider side) even buzzes when the car arrives.
Do you believe in Karma? Here, let me give you a "1" star.
Ooh, I know this one. In fact, if you can stay under the radar long enough, the trip will be cancelled and you get to pocket the cancellation fee. Like $5. Then you don't waste time driving either. Win-win!
$3.75 not $5.
Perfect if its dinner time and you want 5 minutes to eat your sandwhich :)
As one already said, it buzzes the passenger that the driver has arrived.
What kills me is when the passenger does not answer the phone or the number is invalid.
Then they do or don't accept a text... and expect us to wait five minutes or more?
Then the driver has to hope the address was put in correctly... (mistakes happen A LOT)
I start to think it is a rider scam. Ever have a shotgun pointed at you at 5:30 am? (For being at the wrong address?)
How do you know that the ride isn't a long valuable ride? Is it worth a $3.75 gain after you have already driven there?
I was wondering the same thing when I read this. he might be talking about when the rides started when you just approached the rider and his or her location. Now you have to accept it. (at least with Lyft you do.) So maybe his intention is to just start running the meter.
or long distance pickup fee.
The famous one is the mass "switch-offs." It's how a bunch of drivers coordinated and decided to turn off their Uber Driver apps. (i.e. go offline). Then once a surge kicks in (being checked on a Uber passenger app) due to low supply and high demand, they all turn their apps on, and they all get the surge.
Basically, they are gaming the system, the algorithm of Uber surge
Stuffinmuffin, How would this work? Where do you meet all the drivers needed to implement this plan?
Wait, let me guess:
1. You go to a Greenlight location, pass out your card with your phone number.
2. Ask all of them to call you.
3. Tell all of them of the plan.
4. They must drive to center city Philadelphia on Friday at 4:00 PM and shut down.
5. At 4:30 PM they should reopen their app.
Sounds like a fool proof plan to me. Naaahhh.
This is actually something that was being organized by a fair number of drivers, part in protest for Uber's introduction of surge pricing. This was done in the early days where Uber's surge logic was still elementary and was easy to be fooled. It was far from dynamic and was based on handful of factors. I never took part in it, but this had a fair level of success, enough that Uber implemented a "fix" and made an announcement about it. Also, remember that this was in the days where there were no airport queues and much fewer drivers.
I agree with you though, and it isn't something I am not quite sure how it worked. For example, how did the drivers really communicate each other? and wouldn't some drivers always just go rogue and pick up all the rides they want while everyone else's phone was turned off?
How would this work? Won't some guy win who doesn't actually turn off the app? There will always be cheater.
Nope. Those "cheaters" will end up getting a fare and that fare won't be surged. Cheaters always lose!!! Hahahaha
The Fare Guarantee Trick used to be easy and it still works.
Uber frequently offers the "average hourly guarantee". This means that if you are working a certain number of hours and are still making very little money, Uber will pay the difference to bring your pay up to that guarantee.
So what did drivers do? They found a quiet corner where there are unlikely to be any ride requests, and just sit and wait. Nap, read a book, play iPhone games, etc. Then towards the time period, say six hours later towards the end of a shift, go to a populated area say downtown, and do a bunch of short rides to meet the minimum required. Then Uber pays the difference. Boom. The driver just worked for an hour and made the money he woud have working 7 hours.
Some drivers were caught doing this at their homes in the suburbs. They would watch TV at home, with their app running all day. Then they go do a few rides, and they'd still get all the hourly payout.
Uber cracked down on this by putting weird logic in place, but it still works.
If you kept your app on and refused rides then Uber would shut it down. Where do all these weird ideas come from?
No, the key is that you drive to an area where you know there are very few riders. This way, you don't even receive the requests, hence no need to refuse.
Popular in drivers in suburbs who could just go home, sit in their living room watching tv, and satisfy the criteria.
Scamming passengers is bad. Scamming Uber is not a scam.
UBER IS THE MASTER E - SCAM . THEY JUST OFFERED TO BRIBE THE NYC COUNCIL WITH 10 BILLION DOLLARS NOT TO PASS THE NEW LAWS TO PROTECT US THE DRIVERS AND TO HELP BAIL OUT YELLOW MEDALLION CABS.
Instead of sitting in the wood watching Netflix, can't you be working for another company. Like Lyft? Wouldn't that double your pay.
Nope. because if you do that you will most likely be in areas where there will be passeners and you'd end up getting requests. You could potentially cancel them but Uber will start to catch on if they saw that.
You sound like an expert.
That is so lazy. I am speechless.
People who ask this question is guilty of being a scam jammer themselves. For the drivers it's called leveling the playing field legally . Similar to office people who would kill their mother for a dollar to get ahead.
Ooh, I know one. A driver would accept your ride and drive over towards your location. However, they would hide around the corner, claim they are there, and wait five minutes. Then they would cancel the ride, while claiming a "no show."
What you can do as a passenger is to stare at your phone screen, and try to find - on foot - the driver per your GPS. When finding him/her, you must jump out of the bushes and say, "AHA!"
Why would drivers wanna do this? They don't know how the ride will be. They don't even know the destination at that point, right?
The ride can be lucrative than some $5 cancellation. It could have been a long trip to the airport, for a big tipper, and with a nice or girl.
It seems counterintuitive to me. I mean completely. You as a driver are in this job to want and give rides. Why do something that makes you NOT drive. That doesn't make sense to me.
It has happened to me--on multiple occasions.
I can only guess at the motivation:
ah, the old hide behind the bush trick.
Hopefully a dog with a full bladder will stop at the Bush your hiding in
LOL
Asking for the destination and cancelling (but only after arrival)
Here's one trick I heard from a driver but I am not sure if it's true. The driver would call you to ask you for the destination in order to determine if he wants to take a ride or not. e.g. Is it long enough to make it worth it? Then if they deem it unworthy, they would actually arrive, not text you, wait a few minutes and then cancel.
Apparently, if you cancel after you arrive, and waited x minutes, they won't be penalized in the eyes of Uber. Messed up. and the rider cannot leave them a bad review either, because the ride hasn't occured. Messed up, right?
Long pickup fees, baby. While working in the suburbs, you will get fares that are usually far. Far like 15-20 minutes away, and that's the norm. The cool thing is that Uber started paying you for the time you are driving on the way to your passenger. I think it's like more than 8 minutes or something
So what do drivers do? When the pick up seems far away, start driving slowly, taking round-about ways, killing as much time as possible. I mean, ther's no incentive to go faster.
Unethical. and I call BS here. You make way less per mile driving around for a long pickup fee than actually driving a passenger. Why risk having the ride cancelled?
Well said Chris.
Just curious, why do people always assume that rideshare drivers are scammers?
Sure some longhaul, or file for false cleaning fees, but the vast majority of us are honest and hard working individuals. I'd claim that the percentage of bad passengers far exceeds the percentage of bad drivers, because many drivers rely on rideshare to support their families. Passengers main motivation is to save money, and many/most have no problem stabbing their driver in the back if they can save four bucks in a ride refund.
I was just thinking the same thing when i seen your post. What about the riders that scam the drivers? There is a page circulating with approx. 10 ideas on it "how to scam drivers". In the past 2 weeks I've had 2 pick ups one was 11 min. away one was 9 min. away. Although I dont usually take rides with long pick up(been screwed one too many times on long pick ups) I took them because it was slow and one was a surge. I was 100' feet away from rider when I get cancelled. I see him tapping away on phone only to get into a Lyft. I can only assume it was my rider cancelling me as he was at my pick up location and the only male in site. Few days later same thing this time was a surge. Pull into up scale neighborhood see a female at my location getting into a lyft as the cancellation comes up on the app. I dont understand wasting $ for cancellation fee when they had only a 30 sec wait between me and lyft. Maybe I am wrong and these were not my riders but what are the chances both riders were…
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I was just thinking the same thing when i seen your post. What about the riders that scam the drivers? There is a page circulating with approx. 10 ideas on it "how to scam drivers". In the past 2 weeks I've had 2 pick ups one was 11 min. away one was 9 min. away. Although I dont usually take rides with long pick up(been screwed one too many times on long pick ups) I took them because it was slow and one was a surge. I was 100' feet away from rider when I get cancelled. I see him tapping away on phone only to get into a Lyft. I can only assume it was my rider cancelling me as he was at my pick up location and the only male in site. Few days later same thing this time was a surge. Pull into up scale neighborhood see a female at my location getting into a lyft as the cancellation comes up on the app. I dont understand wasting $ for cancellation fee when they had only a 30 sec wait between me and lyft. Maybe I am wrong and these were not my riders but what are the chances both riders were at exact address I was picking up at, same sex as my pick ups, and both got into a Lyft. Although I received 3.75 for one and 4.86 for other one I may have lost out on a long trip or a better fare than a cancel fee. Riders also try "can you just drop my friend a block away? I dont know how to do it on app". Express pool which Uber dont tell you until you accept it its express and not regular pool. Three out of 5 riders expect you to drop at their exact location always saying "I didnt know, or I thought I picked regular pool). I try not to pick pool riders at all but sometimes its slow and I am bored. I could go on but think I made my point. Stop blaming all drivers for scams some of us are just out there trying to make money by being decent and honest. Riders are not so innocent in "scams and excuses". BTW all those excuses you give on not knowing how to use app or add a stop etc... we are not stupid we damn right know you know how to use it.
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I hear you. I had a cancel this morning, with another rideshare car leaving the address as I pulled up. 4am in a dark residential area? I'm pretty sure the passenger ordered from both companies and just took the first that showed up.
Later, I dropped a lady off downtown, and she had a fit because I refused to illegally drop her off on a bus only street "like all the other drivers." 1* for me, and 1* for her with a detailed message to Lyft explaining the circumstances. There's little doubt that if I got a ticket, she'd complain to Uber/Lyft that I dropped them off in an unsafe area and demand a refund. (and Uber/Lyft would refund their fare for it without investigating my side)
So frustrating.
This is the worst thread ever. You guys are tainting those new innocent drivers.
Don't blame the people. Blame the system. All trying to make a living.
What's wrong with watching NetFlix for 6 hours and not doing any rides? and making a full day's pay?
and Uber has $70B!!
If you are an UberXL, you can bump up to UberXL rate, regardless of the passengers.
If your car qualifies for an UberXL, even if your rider requests an UberX, you can be matched up. That's fine. When that happens, if you make a request to Uber that there were more than 4 passengers, they will usually adjust the fare up to UberXL rates.
No, I don't do it. I swear.
Dude, that's so wrong. It screws the passenger, right? I assume there is a chargeback on them. What if they complain?
It would be nice if Uber or any of the rideshare companies had a zero tolerance policy. I know Phlatbed has a "once and out" policy. You screw up one and you're permanently banned from the platform.
I think such strong stance on bad behavior is a strong deterrent.
Yes, but..... with 67% of all drivers quitting within 6 months Uber and Lyft would be no more if they did that. Why do you think they spend millions to recruit drivers and bend background check rules to recruit more drivers :)
Well said. Background checks are almost always a loss leader, any company that doesn't lean the cost into the compensation structure knows it doesn't matter, that's one area you will always budget for as a cost center.
Would you rather have 40% drivers who are effective and are able to meet demand (which may slightly exceed supply) and command higher compensation instead of 100% where 67% quit within 6 months? Driver aquisition cost for Uber and Lyft is almost $150......so the driver has to run at least 5 jobs before the aquisition cost (including screening etc) is paid for, THEN they can start hoping to see some profit per trip unit. Zero tolerance sets the tone..and in a way is self filtering. People who know you won't put up with their nonsense are less likely to get on the platform in the first place.
Having 40% of drivers to handle demand would not work unfortunately.
Demand of ridership is growing at the subsidised rates and more and more people would rather ride in a car than a bus/train
In other fields it may apply to have 1 worker who can multitask and bevery productive (that is when employees work for a boss), but an effective driver can effectively only do 1 ride at a time. These effective drivers like all rideshare drivers are self employed and are in the gig to make more moeny for their boss (who is the drivers themselves). The more effective the driver becomes the smarter (after gaining experience). A smart driver will find ways to be effective for driver's bottom line, which means they will want to do less work than before but to put more money in their pockets, thus declining certain type of rides, etc.
Several states (MA, ME, MD, etc) ran their own background checks some time back on drivers that passed Uber/Lyft backgrounds and found a bunch of these (greenlighted …
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Having 40% of drivers to handle demand would not work unfortunately.
Demand of ridership is growing at the subsidised rates and more and more people would rather ride in a car than a bus/train
In other fields it may apply to have 1 worker who can multitask and bevery productive (that is when employees work for a boss), but an effective driver can effectively only do 1 ride at a time. These effective drivers like all rideshare drivers are self employed and are in the gig to make more moeny for their boss (who is the drivers themselves). The more effective the driver becomes the smarter (after gaining experience). A smart driver will find ways to be effective for driver's bottom line, which means they will want to do less work than before but to put more money in their pockets, thus declining certain type of rides, etc.
Several states (MA, ME, MD, etc) ran their own background checks some time back on drivers that passed Uber/Lyft backgrounds and found a bunch of these (greenlighted drivers) to have felonies.
The only KPI Lyft and Uber use is, you guessed it ETA for a driver to pick up passenger, so they will continue to dump countless drivers onto the platform, without regard as to if driver can make any money outsude of the few high demand hours :)
Ultimately, if drivers got paid more they would stick around longer on the platform, but the trend in past 3 years is that drivers take home less, and less, so they drive longer and maybe skip out on a few needed car maintenance items, so the quality overall is going down from passenger perspective.
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So we can agree that price optimization, fair compensation, and balancing supply with demand is a good start.
Absolutely
Someone posted this a month or two ago:
https://ride.guru/lounge/p/lots-of-driver-scams-watch-out-passengers
Yeah, but those weren't so believable. Fake puke on the seat. Asking riders for cash on tolls. Running up the meter. Old school.