How do you know your rideshare driver is trying to scam you? A New York woman says that she realized her Uber driver was running a scam, so she confronted him. But some people aren’t buying it.
One night last week, TikTok creator Sadie (@cravesadiee) hailed an Uber. As she stood waiting on a New York street, she noticed her driver had arrived nearby. Yet he didn’t come pick her up. So she confronted him.
“Called a lift and this guy is not moving, bro,” she says. “He’s literally down the block so I’m walking right now.”
(While it’s possible she’s referring to fellow rideshare company Lyft, she says Uber multiple times in the video and in the captions.)
Sadie hustles down the city street to where the driver is sitting in his car with it running. Approaching, she says to him, “Cancel the ride. Cancel the Uber ride.”
The man seems confused. “Huh?” he says.
“We’ve been waiting for you for a long time,” she tells him, again urging him to cancel the ride. In an on-screen caption, she says it’s been 10 minutes.
He asks if she wants to cancel the ride and Sadie reiterates that she wants him to cancel it.
“Yes, you can, because you’ve been sitting here,” she says. “We’ve been sitting there waiting for you for over five minutes.”
The driver apparently obliges. Sadie is convinced he was trying to scam her. In an on-screen caption, she writes, “Normalize pulling up on your Uber drivers when they try to scam you and they are nearby!!”
Her video swiftly went viral. In less than a week, it’s been viewed over 672,000 times.
What is the Uber cancellation scam?
The alleged scam Sadie seems to believe the driver was running is widely known as the cancellation scam. People say that drivers accept rides with no intention of following through in the hopes that they’ll cancel. Uber charges people cancellation fees, so drivers can get paid without taking their car out of park.
Per its website, “When a rider cancels after you’ve accepted their trip, you may be paid either the standard cancellation fee or for the actual time and distance you spent driving towards the pickup, whichever amount is more.”
It’s not clear how much of the fee drivers collect and Uber notes it varies by location.
If you suspect your driver did this, you can request a refund from Uber. The company notes that accepting rides with no intention of completing them can be fraudulent.
Does the Uber cancellation scam make sense?
Many people believe that the Uber driver cancellation scam is real.
“They scam too much! They do this so that YOU cancel and have to pay that $5 fee,” a believer commented on her post.
Another person shared their own experience, writing, “Some driver did this to me and every time I canceled the ride, he would pick up the ride again and never move his car.”
Others urged her to tell Uber what happened. One suggested that the driver was trying to increase his fare. It’s not clear how, however.
Not everyone is convinced that the driver was running a scam. Sadie didn’t respond to a direct message sent via TikTok.
One person noted that drivers would make less money via this purported scam. “It’s $5 for a cancelled ride, that makes them no money,” they said. “They might have had something going on, if a driver cancels the ride it goes against their rating which makes them get less requests, which is bad bc it’s their JOB. He was either extremely unintelligent or had something personal going on, but it’s no scam.”
YouTube creator The Rideshare Guy reports that drivers get flat rates for cancellations. Multiple commenters who identified themselves as Uber drivers say their share of the fee is roughly $4. That’s not a lot, but in a busy area, it could add up. But then, they’re risking getting in trouble with Uber.
Still, judging by the comments, people are thoroughly convinced that the scam is real and pervasive.
One person has a novel idea on how to tamp down on the alleged practice. “They need to require all Uber drivers to have a live inside facing cam for every driver, period! Hold them accountable!” she wrote.
Uber didn’t respond to an email sent Thursday morning.
@cravesadiee I was NOT playing with bro
♬ original sound – cravesadie
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