You may have heard horror stories–from your own Uber driver no less–about drunk passengers who throw up in their drivers’ cars, thus beginning a long, meandering quest to get them to pay the cleaning bill. Now, apparently some Uber drivers are staging this occurrence as a scam, by using fake throw up.
According to the Epoch Times, this scam is gaining public notice after a New Yorker spoke to the media about being charged $200 for a throwing up incident that she wasn’t responsible for.
According to Gothamist, after discovering this charge on her bill, Meredith Mandel contacted Uber, who sent her pictures that her driver had submitted of the alleged vomit. Upon further investigation, she discovered that at least one photo was from the front of the car, when she and her friends had been sitting in the back. She also realized that the “vomit” was on areas that were easy to clean, and found that the photos had no metadata.
After discovering similar scams in Los Angeles and Tampa, Florida, Mandel managed to get her money back.
The Epoch Times tells Mandel’s story as well, and also has further details on the LA and Florida scams. In LA, one woman was charged with a cleaning bill when rainwater got into her driver’s car when she was getting in and out. In Tampa, the driver who initiated the fake throw up scam was fired, and the passengers got their money back after a local broadcaster got involved.
At least these passengers weren’t charged $1,100 due to New Year’s Eve surge pricing.
(via Epoch Times)