If you ever get in a conversation with your Ola and Uber drivers, they’ll tell you that they have stopped earning profits like they used to a few months ago. The reason cited is the modified incentive model by the online cab aggregators. It reportedly happened because a number of Ola and Uber drivers manipulated the system and stole serious money.
In the latest development, a driver who worked with Ola before switching to Uber got into a conversation with a passenger, Neha Garg, that led to a confession by the driver that puts into light the scam he ran on Ola.
The conversation started because of ‘a nasty co-passenger’ in her Uber ride.
Customary small talk with my Uber cabbie this morning led to him revealing details of an Ola scam that he was a part of, leaving me stunned.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
It all started with my UberPool co-rider being nasty and stubborn with her pickup location and making us wait. He wanted to cancel her ride.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
While she was *finally* walking towards the cab, he turned and asked me if he should cancel the ride. I said no. He grinned and shrugged.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
She sat in the cab. Nothing happened. Her drop was before me. As soon as we dropped her, this guy started talking.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
The driver then revealed the details of the scam.
Starting with, “Aise passengaro ko sabak seekhaane ke liye toh inki ride cancel kar deni chahiye. Unke ghar ke aagey aakar. Kya kar lenge?!”
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
When I expressed the futility of it, he said, “Uber mein toh phir bhi mushkil hai, Ola mein toh hum jaate hi nahin the location pe.”
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
I was perplexed. Asked him to explain. He goes, “Ek software aata hai. Ussey kahin bhi baithe-baithe aap apni location change kar sakte ho..
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
…Ab kisi ne gaadi book karwai. Main apni jagah se hilunga nahin, aur uss software se gaadi aapki location par show karegi. Jo phone no…
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
…mera registered hai, usey main flight mode par rakh dunga. Ab customer bahar nikle toh gaadi nahin, phone kare toh num reachable nahin.”
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
The drivers used a software that manipulated their location. So, when a customer booked a cab, all they would see is that the driver is at the pickup point. In reality, they would be somewhere else. Then, the drivers would put their registered mobile number in flight mode, to prevent the customer from contacting them.
“Baithe-baithe humne laakhon kamaaye.” When I asked about the mechanics, he told a much graver story, compared to which this was nothing.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
If you think that’s the worst, it wasn’t. The flight mode trick was for the actual, rare rides. Drivers then started using their own SIM cards to create fake Ola customers’ IDs. Apart from the driver, four people would sit in the cab and would repeatedly book the ride.
He tells me that the example he just gave was for ‘genuine duties’, which were just 1/50. In other 49 instances, there never *was* a rider.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
So it worked like this: One cab. Five people. 4 ‘non-calling’ tabs. 500 sims. One Ola ID-enabled phone. One phone with registered number.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
All the five people are sitting in one cab, one is the designated driver with the Ola ID, rest four are riders with non-calling tabs.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
They kept circling around the same route but used that location manipulating software to avoid getting caught. In this way, they booked fake rides and earned up to INR 30K every day.
The 500 sims are used to make 500 unique customer ids, on the Ola app. It’s the responsibility of the four ‘riders’ to login & book a ride.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
A special software – Move Navigator (sic) – is installed in the ‘driver’s’ phone. It costs INR 80k. And is available in Rajasthan, Kota.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
This software is used to manipulate the location of the cab. It also helps them mitigate the risk of a pattern emerging out of the route.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
Every day would start with the five people sitting in the cab, making rounds of the same route, booking fake rides, picking up fake riders.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
Dropping fake riders. All this while manipulating the locations with the software, making money on the initiatives pushed by Ola.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
Daily earnings for this team of five was INR 30k. The car, software and labour costs were the only costs. Which got offset in two weeks.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
They continued what he called this ‘fraud’ for 7 months. Without anyone raising any finger on them. In the 7th month, Ola sensed something.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
But no strict action was taken. Only setback this team faced was that the login failed on the four tabs, and the 500 fake customer ids.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
These guys were determined to fight the setback. They bought 1000 new sims this time, making 1000 new ids. Started dropping pins randomly.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
By the time story reached this point, we were at Huda City Center, my drop location. I wanted to know how it ended. So I asked him that.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
Ola and Uber drivers make more money from the ‘incentive’ they get from the companies than from what the actual cost of the ride comes out to be. Hence, by putting in place a system of fake rides, they achieve the target of a minimum number of rides that makes sure that they get their incentive, without spending huge amounts of fuel or time.
According to the thread, Ola managed to track all the culprits and further blacklisted 11,600 cabs.
Apparently, Ola knew of this scam. A total of 11,600 cabs were involved in the fraud. All of those IDs were blacklisted from the system.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
But no other action was taken. Most of those 11,600 cabs moved to Uber, a company ‘jiske naam se hi humein allergy si hoti thi’.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
This guy has been with Uber for about 4 months now. And the frustration of not having figured out a way to beat the system yet is palpable.
— Neha Garg (@gargneha) September 21, 2016
An official spokesperson from Ola said, “We have zero tolerance to fraud on the Ola platform, both on the driver and customer side. While on one hand, we have instituted multiple checks and preventive technology interventions to eliminate any fraudulent activity on the platform since inception, we have also parallelly partnered with local authorities to take stringent action against those attempting to do so wilfully, in the interest of overall security. We suspect that this is an attempt to malign our brand image amongst customers and driver-partners.”
The spokesperson further added, “To prevent any kind of malpractice on our platform, we maintain trust scores for every entity and ensure appropriate action whenever we observe a dip in this score. We have also incorporated stronger mobile identity verification, unique OTP checks, before starting the ride, automated allotment and institution of machine learning to detect suspicious behaviour and arrest any kind of attempt of malpractices on the Ola platform over the years.”
This development was reported by Indiatoday.
