New Delhi: There is a new scam in town which is duplicating your number and then using you to book rides on UBER and charging exorbitant amount for a ride that may have lasted exactly 2 minutes. In a fast-paced digitized society that we are all living in, nothing seems to be private anymore including your personal mobile number and everything can be duplicated at whatever time to siphon off your hard-earned money.
This weekend turned harrowing for an Uber user. On Saturday at 4:30 am IST she got an alert on her mobile stating that her trip had been verified and a pin has been generated. She was asleep and the alert message was read with sleepy eyes.
Confused at seeing the message, the user tapped on the ‘pin’ thinking if she had a booked a ride on UBER by mistake or in sleep. The message redirected her to UBER login page and asked her to login with her phone number. Half asleep she fed in the number and turned off the phone and got back to sleep.
Hours later, she got a call from a UBER driver stating that her Intercity ride for Punjab had been booked and he was waiting at the pick-up location. Again, confused by the call, she went on her UBER app to check if she had booked any ride or if there was a scheduled trip booked through her ID. She found none.
Since that call on Saturday morning, she received at least 40 calls through the weekend. Some calls came at 1:30 or 2:30 am at night, some at 5 am in the morning.
The user even Uninstalled her UBER app, but to no respite. Throughout the weekend, the user continued to get Uber intercity ride requests.
The most harrowing part was not yet over. Uber charged Rs 4.6 lakh on her corporate on UBER account, billing it to the organization she worked in. Trips were booked and charged for a hefty Rs. 4,000 to 8,000 for a distance of 2 km or less.
The Uber user says that nobody reached out from UBER while the messages on her X DM kept stating ‘we are looking into the matter’.
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