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  Geebo 8:00 am on October 9, 2023 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: gig economy, lyft ( 15 ), rideshare ( 5 ), rideshare scam ( 5 ), Scams ( 1,386 ), Uber ( 24 ), verification code ( 6 )   

  Rideshare drivers are being scammed out of their earnings again 

  

  By Greg Collier

  A new report has just come out that states rideshare drivers for services like Lyft and Uber are being targeted in scams, again. Anything connected to the internet is vulnerable to one scam or another, and that seems to be affecting rideshare drivers as well. Except this time, as the cliché goes, the calls seem to be coming from inside the house.

  The drivers are being locked out of their Uber or Lyft accounts by scammers. The scammers pose as Uber or Lyft themselves. The drivers typically receive a call from the scammers posing as whichever service they drive for. The scammers will tell the drivers there is something wrong with their account, or their account has been suspended after a customer complaint.

  After a moment, the scammers will tell the drivers that they need to verify the driver’s identification. A code will be sent to the driver through text message, and they’ll be asked to repeat that code to the caller. This code is actually the code to reset the driver’s password to their account. Once the scammer gets a hold of that code, they can change the password on the account, locking the driver out.

  From there, the scammers change where the driver’s payment is supposed to go to the scammers bank account. Then the driver’s account is drained of all the driver’s current earnings. This scam can cost a driver hundreds of dollars.

  The new report about this scam sheds some more light on it since the last time we posted about this. One driver from Portland who fell victim to this scam said the caller talked like they worked in the industry. He said they knew all the company jargon and completely fooled him into handing over his account.

  Lyft has told the media they will never call a driver asking for personal information unless the driver reaches out first.

  Again, you may not be a rideshare driver, but you could hold any another position in the gig economy, which is also vulnerable to this scam.

  If you happen to receive such a phone call, politely inform the caller that you will return their call and take the initiative to verify the situation directly through the platform. Nearly all gig economy applications should offer a feedback or contact option within the app or website, allowing you to reach out to the company for clarification.

   

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  Geebo 8:00 am on September 9, 2022 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: gig economy, impersonation scam ( 148 ), impostor scam ( 16 ), rideshare scam ( 5 ), Scams ( 1,386 ), Uber ( 24 )   

  Uber driver loses week’s wages in scam 

  

  By Greg Collier

  The scam we’re about to talk about today exclusively targets rideshare drivers. Even though the majority of our readers probably aren’t rideshare drivers, we think this story can be useful to our other readers as well. Not only does it show how gig economy workers can be vulnerable to scams, we also think it’s a commentary on how some gig economy companies treat their workers.

  The victim in today’s story is an Uber driver from Salt Lake City. He loves his work and seems to be very successful at it. Rather than driving as a means to make extra money, the driver dos it full-time and is able to make a comfortable living. As an aside, that’s the exception rather than the rule, but that’s neither here nor there for right now.

  Last week, the man received a call from someone claiming to be from Uber. The caller said that the driver had received a complaint and needed to issue a refund. He was instructed to log into the Uber app and given directions on how to issue the supposed refund. What actually happened is that scammers were directing him to issue $1200 directly to the scammers. This wiped out a week’s worth of wages for the driver. Our story doesn’t end there, however.

  The driver reached out to Uber for assistance, who said they investigated the matter, but the man wasn’t due for a refund. It wasn’t until the driver reached out to his local media before Uber issued him a refund.

  Our earning to not only rideshare drivers but other gig economy workers, if you receive a phone call from the company you’re working for about your earnings, contact them through official channels before issuing any supposed refunds. You may also want to research how refunds are actually handled beforehand, so you know what’s a scam and what isn’t.

  However, we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out how similarly Uber acted like the banks that have had customers scammed through Zelle. Just like in the Zelle scams, Uber didn’t act in the worker’s interest until it became a potential PR issue.

  Learn your rights before joining a gig economy company. In the majority of these companies, you’re not an employee, but rather an outside contractor. These independent contractors do not receive nearly the same protections as an actual employee.

   
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  Geebo 8:00 am on July 26, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: 2FA ( 12 ), bank scam ( 72 ), DoorDash ( 3 ), gig economy, Scams ( 1,386 ), two factor authentication ( 18 )   

  Bank scam targets gig economy workers 

  

  By Greg Collier

  For better or worse, millions of people have turned to work in the gig economy either as their primary income or as a secondary source of revenue. The gig economy is where people work for non-traditional companies as independent contractors. For example, if you drive for Uber or Lyft, or deliver for Grubhub or DoorDash, you’re part of the gig economy. Working as an independent contractor for any one of these types of companies already comes with its own pitfalls. Many say that the companies are already taking advantage of their workers by removing protections that many traditional jobs have. If that wasn’t bad enough, scammers are now targeting gig workers’ bank accounts.

  A DoorDash driver from North Carolina was recently a victim of this scam, where he ended up losing $1,000. While making his rounds, he received a phone call from someone claiming to be from DoorDash. They told him to pull over somewhere safe and then said that the driver’s DoorDash account had been compromised. The scammers were even able to give him details from his own account. The scammers then instructed the man that they were going to send him an authorization code to save his account. All he had to do was tell them the code, which the driver did. When he went to get his payment from his DoorDash account, he discovered that the scammers had directed his payment away from his bank account and into theirs.

  Authorization codes are usually sent to customers of whatever service if they need to make a change to their account. This is part of what’s known as two-factor authentication. If someone is claiming to be a representative of that company, they won’t need an authorization code to make changes or protect your account, as they already have your information. This affects everyone too, not just gig workers, as many of the services we rely on every day require authorization codes to access them.

   
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  Geebo 7:23 am on July 23, 2019 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: delivery ( 8 ), DoorDash ( 3 ), food delivery ( 2 ), gig economy, tipping, Tips ( 2 )   

  Your delivery tips may not be going where you think! 

  

  In today’s immediate response needed society, many of us use food delivery services like UberEats or DoorDash to have food delivered to our home. These services became popular once consumers found out that they could have food delivered to them from restaurants that don’t normally deliver. Can’t get out of the home and need to get a decent meal delivered for dinner? Just use the app for one of these services and you can have dinner delivered to your home in no time. Now, while it may be convenient for you this convenience comes at a cost. Is that cost burdened by the restaurant? No. Is it the platform itself? Sort of. However, too much of the cost may be burdened by the delivery drivers themselves.

  A recent report from the New York Times had one of their writers and go out and work as a delivery driver for these gig economy platforms. In order to make any decent amount of money, many of these drivers have to work for several different services while trying to comply with the rules and demands of each. trying to juggle all of those demands increases the likelihood that they could lose out on deliveries. Meanwhile, they’re not really employees of any of these companies and are seen more like independent contractors. This way these companies don’t have to provide many benefits to their drivers.

  To make matters worse, according to the Times report, some of these platforms consider tips as part of the drivers’ base wages. For example, if you tip your delivery driver through the platform’s app, that tip may just be taken off the top of whatever they were going to make for that delivery. In essence, tipping just reduced their pay. Not all delivery platforms are like this, but The Verge has a list of companies that do and don’t count driver tips as base pay. So the next time you order lunch to be delivered, try to keep in mind the person delivering your food and what they’re going through as well.

   
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  Geebo 8:00 am on April 26, 2019 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: gig economy, lyft ( 15 ), ride sharing ( 6 ), strike ( 2 ), Uber ( 24 )   

  Can Uber and Lyft survive strike? 

  

  It appears that the gig economy is about to face a major milestone in its relatively short history. While some cities and taxi unions have opposed the invasion of ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft, now it’s the ridesharing drivers themselves that are fighting back against the companies. On May 8th, Uber is set to issue its IPO. Some estimates put Uber’s valuation at between $80 billion and $90 billion. Meanwhile, many of their drivers earn less than minimum wage and plan to do something about it.

  On the same day that Uber goes public many Lyft and Uber drivers plan to go on strike for 24 hours in eight cities. Those cities are Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. These are all major cities that depend a lot on not only public transportation but also ridesharing services. Even just for one day, the strike has the potential to put a very inconvenient dent in a lot of people’s commute. This could get a lot of support for Uber and Lyft drivers.

  [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wA87SgZGOc%5D

  The drivers are demanding…

  • higher wages
  • clearer policies on wages, tips, how fares are shared and disciplinary action
  • employee benefits such as health care, disability payments and holiday pay
  • recognition and representation for drivers in Uber’s management structure

  It will be interesting to see how Uber and Lyft react not only to the announcement of the strike but the strike itself. One of the problems with the current economy is that employees in most industries have fewer protections than there have been in the past. This makes the gig economy attractive to many looking to supplement their current income. That means that there are scores of people looking to replace the striking Uber and Lyft drivers if those companies decide to retaliate. While it would be a major PR disaster for those companies, they’ve become such a convenience that it may blow over.