Uber Eats scams are a headache many Uber Eats drivers will have to deal with at some point in their driving careers. Do even a cursory online search and you’ll see countless news stories of drivers getting scammed for hundreds – or even thousands of dollars – by thieves. For example, here’s a news story of a driver that lost over $400 to a scammer impersonating Uber support. Needless to say, having someone steal that much money from you can be devastating for anyone.
Fortunately, you don’t have to fall victim to these scams if you know what they are and how they work. With the right background knowledge, you’ll be aware and able to avoid anyone trying to scam you.
So, in this post, we’ll take a look at some of the most common Uber Eats scams, how they work, and what you should do to avoid becoming a victim of any of these scams. Let’s take a look.
Uber Eats Scams
While there are countless potential Uber Eats scams out there, most of them work in the same way. Here are the main scams you should be aware of if you’re driving for Uber Eats.
1. The Fake Uber Eats Support Scam
The most common scam used by thieves is the fake Uber Eats support scam. This is when someone calls pretending to be from Uber Eats support. They’ll then use your trust to get information from you and gain access to your Uber Eats account.
Here’s how it works. First, the scammer places a small order at a restaurant, usually at a fast food restaurant. Typically, the order will be for something like a soda or cookie at Mcdonald’s or another similar type of restaurant. After accepting the order, the scammer will then call the driver and pretend to be from Uber Eats support. Because the scammer placed the order themselves, they’ll know your name and the order details, which they can use to convince you that they work for Uber Eats.
For example, the scammer might call you, and say, “Hello, is this [your name].” Once you answer yes, they’ll say they’re calling about your current delivery and read out the order details to you. Typically, the scammer will then let you know there’s an issue with your account or with an issue with the order and that you’ll need to cancel it. To secure your account, they’ll then ask you to provide your login details and read back any two-factor authentication codes that are sent to you. By providing this information, the scammer can then gain access to your Uber Eats account, where they can then change your bank information (because you’ve given them your login details and all the two-factor authentication codes). The scammer then cashes out your Uber Eats balance into their bank account. If you have a sizeable balance, it can lead to a huge monetary loss.
Another variation of this scam is where the scammer calls you, again using the information they know about you from their scam order. They’ll then let you know you’re eligible for some bonus and you’ll just need to confirm your account information to claim the bonus. Some drivers, excited about this potential bonus, will provide this information without thinking about what’s really happening.
The big takeaway from these scams is to never give your account information to anyone, not even someone claiming to be from Uber Eats support. Remember this – Uber will never ask you for your account or login information (see this Uber page where they make that clear). If you receive a call like this, you should immediately hang up, then contact Uber Eats support. Uber will cancel the order for you and pay you for the order, as well as ban the scammer’s Uber Eats account.
2. The Customer Says You Didn’t Deliver Their Food
The second most common Uber Eats scam is where the customer makes a false claim that they did not receive their order. By claiming they didn’t receive their order, the customer can get free food. This scam is particularly terrible because it hurts Uber Eats drivers, who can be terminated over claims that they didn’t deliver a customer’s order, and also likely hurts restaurants because Uber Eats will probably do a chargeback on the restaurant to cover the cost of the meal.
Unfortunately, this is something you’ll almost always have to deal with at some point. To avoid potential issues, always try to document everything you did when delivering the order. If it’s a “leave at the door” order, you’ll be covered because you submit a photo of the delivery when you complete the order. If it’s an order that asks for a PIN, make sure you enter the customer’s PIN so that you’re covered by any claims that you didn’t deliver the order.
Another potential option to cover yourself is to document your deliveries. Some Uber Eats drivers wear body cams or GoPro cameras, which can be used as video evidence if a customer makes a false claim that their order was never delivered.
As a final option, if you have a bad feeling about a customer, taking a lot of photos of the delivery location can potentially be helpful. I know if I have a bad feeling about a customer, I’ll snap a photo at the address, just in case. It’s not foolproof by any means, but it’s at least something.
The absolute best thing you can do, however, is to have a good record of completed deliveries. Uber Eats isn’t going to deactivate you because a single customer claimed they didn’t get their order. If you have a lot of successful orders and a high customer rating, a false claim against you will have less impact. So, the best thing you can do is just keep a high customer rating and have a lot of completed deliveries under your belt.
One final word of advice. If you do receive a false claim that you didn’t deliver a customer’s order, do not, under any circumstances, confront the customer. Some people will do this out of anger or think that it’ll help them, but doing this will always lead to your deactivation and will just make things worse for you. Not to mention, it could put you in physical danger as well. It’s simply not worth it.
3. The Customer Picks Up The Food Before The Driver Gets There
One final scam that can happen is when an Uber Eats customer places an order on DoorDash, then goes to the restaurant before you get there and picks up the food before you arrive. Because they know the name on their order, they’ll ask for their order as if they are the Uber Eats driver picking up the food. When you arrive later, the restaurant will tell you they already gave the food to another driver, not realizing that it was the customer stealing the food. Later, the customer will get to cancel the order because their food never arrived. You get screwed out of a payout and the customer gets themselves a free meal.
Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do to avoid this type of scam. The only thing you can do is contact Uber Eats support when this happens. They’ll usually give you a small payout when this happens, so you can at least get a little bit of money for the time you spent going to the restaurant.
Note that it isn’t always the case that the customer stole the food if you arrive and the order was already picked up. Uber Eats isn’t perfect and they sometimes will accidentally assign an order. So it is possible that another driver did pick up the food before you.
4. The Change Of Address Scam
This is less of a scam as it is a way for some customers to try to get deliveries from restaurants that are out of their range or to try to lower their delivery fees. In this situation, a customer will place an order with one address, then when you pick up the order, they’ll contact you and tell you they are actually at a different address and ask if you’ll deliver it to them. Most of the time, they’ll try to entice you by saying they will give you an extra tip.
If this happens, be aware you are under no obligation to make the delivery to a different address. Customers are responsible for putting the correct address and your only obligation is to deliver it to the address they have on file.
If the order isn’t much farther away (and I mean it needs to be within a few blocks of the original delivery address), I’ll often complete these orders. I’ll also deliver to a different address if the customer’s address is in a location I already plan to be in. Otherwise, I will not deliver it to a different address.
You have two options here. The first is to go to the address the customer put on file, then start the delivery timer. You can then take a photo of the delivery and leave it. The second – and better option – is to contact Uber Eats support and let them know. I think it’s better to get it on record, just in case the customer tries to say you didn’t deliver their order.
Final Thoughts
These are the primary Uber Eats scams you should know about when you’re delivering for Uber Eats. If you follow the tips in this post, you should hopefully be able to avoid any issues with these scams.
If you’ve encountered other Uber Eats scams that are worth mentioning, please feel free to leave them in the comments below. I hope this information was helpful!
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Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the gig economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.
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I used tobe an uber merchant but somehow they did’t pay us for almost 2 months and we have to discontinue doing business with them , and until now Nov.21 we haven’t got paid from them yet and that was and amount for 5 or 6 weeks and every week over a thousand doolars.
They are very bad , askfor tons of information that they had earlier when we sign up with them.
Then I have to go to the claim court and they didn’t even provide the phisical address.
Real bad and real scam
UBER EATS is a scam themselves.
I made an order on June 29, 2024 @ 11:14 PM. As the order was going through for Mc Donald’s , I realized that the delivery address is wrong because I use UBER EATS all the time. As soon as their system allowed me , which was (30) seconds after the transaction through, I CANCELLED the order. The REPLY/ RESPONSE I got from UBER EATS was that they had cancelled the order and charged me a cancellation. Fee if $27.60 because the store had already started my order. I called support which gave me no resolve. I asked for a supervisor , gave them my information and they said a supervisor would be calling me back. No one ever called me back. I reached out to them again on June 30,2024 @ 4:50 PM. I asked to speak to a supervisor , again no one available. Ivey my information again but not before asking for the corporate number and address for UBER EATS. I was told by JEN that UBER EATS was based out of the Philippines and all she had was a number. I took the number, research the company and found they had a corporate office in San Francisco and was established in January of 2014. I will not allow UNER EATS to @rob me with my eyes open” for an error that was stopped/corrected within (30) seconds. A (30) second error cost me $27.60? Not in your life UBER EATS. Better Business Bureau here I come. I am going to BLADT them on all social media platforms for their disgusting “customer service” and their etiquette.
Truth!
You are right man they are like scammers, I did not get what I ordered and I contact customer support and they said you got the item what you pay it is like worth the money.
I have dealing with Uber eats for months now and it has been the worst experience they do not respect there customer support my orders have been wrong several times and they have gave me the run around and not refunded me my money I have had a supervisor tell me that my order was refundable but not put back in my account the worst experience in my life I have went all the way of calling the better business bureau to report them
Uber eats 8s the WORSE… they will block you if you have to many complaints. We are customers and its our money being spent. We have the right to complain when our stuff isn’t right. Today I ordered 3 boxes of Cheez it from food bazaar and one of the boxes was all dented in one corner and it looks like a mouse was eating on the box. And they said I’m not entitled to a refund.. this is crazyyyyyyy. I will have my entire family and friends stop dealing with uber .
Can somebody tell me where to get the number to the headquarters of Uber eats for Bryan college station who owns the one right who I need to know I need to talk to a lot of other than that at a corporate office and can’t find no one I’ve been hung up for five times who breed says we cancel our order when we know we did not only did they charge the price of the food but a cancellation fee that we didn’t cancel so I called the restaurant cuz we could not have the food or getting my back so call the place we wanted to see from and manager cuz I wouldn’t know nobody but the manager who went in there and searched it they never received an order from Uber eats for us they never received a cancellation order from us who reads he’s hanging up on me they don’t want to f****** say what they’ve done as I consider stolen for my friend here that had her little girlfriend with a bunch of kids she still has five screaming that they’re hungry for the last 2 hours while we’re trying to wait for him yeah we called to see where they’re at and that’s how we find out it’s cancer now I need to talk to someone at the headquarters because I talked to the lady at the restaurant and not only while we’re on the phone when I’m on the porch of the other thing the lady at the nature at the restaurant we ordered from said that did she hates everything associated with them because this is not the first time she’s heard yet that this happens more than you would would imagine so I need to talk to someone at corporate because he’s coming he’s on and under them or Rob and people and why can’t you ever talk to somebody on the phone why you always got an email tonight you they don’t wake them they don’t wait till 10 days or they don’t wait for 6 hours to call to take your money from you they take that automatically but you got a certain way around for nobody to call you that cuz it ain’t the first time my next call to an attorney
I checked my bank balance last night and saw 4 transactions from Uber Eats which deducted $44 four times from my Debit card, a total of $176 Australian, on the same day and I had no dealings with Uber Eats, and never heard of them until last night. How they got my bank details is a mystery to me but I had my Debit card cancelled, and the bank is looking into this fraud and hopefully I will get reimbursed. I was lucky to only lose $176, my pension goes into the bank in 2 days time, had I not picked this scam up I could have lost my whole pension payment.
I just hit with something of a scam from a driver. I ordered my food and the driver is on their way to pick it up but is circling around and not getting my food though it is ready. Then suddenly my driver changes and the second driver saids someone else picked up my order and support ends up canceling my order. I reorder the food again same thing happens again except this time I went to the restaurant. The the restaurant what’s up and that I am going back and forth with Uber support about this. I paid for my food separately and told them to advise anyone who tries to pick up for me the same and not to give them anything. Just as I get into my car the driver on my order changes and is suddenly right there. But there was no car matching the description on the driver’s account. I continue my back and forth with Uber got all my money refunded and Uber cash for the trouble. Just hope the restaurant isn’t out the money from the first order.
I just encounter a scam very close to the first one listed. The only difference was they were telling me they were giving me a bonus for wasted time while dealing with them, but to do so I needed to add a payment card and they were having me cash out to that card. Honestly I was 1 swipe away from losing $660 dollars. It doesn’t seem like something people would fall for, but the scammer was good.
How do I get a hold of corporate
I need to get corporate also.
I just got hacked my account by calling me at my restaurant pretending to be from Uber eats telling my employee that they will send a new tablet and they just need to confirm my emails address. The got into my account and now I can’t access. Needless to say I run to the bank and put a hold on my bank account since they can access to my bank info on my Uber account manager! Not sure if I ever will work with the again, but for sure I will do only check by mail not more which goes my bank info to any of those apps. It’s insane!
How do I report a driver
You can do it in the app. There’s an option to talk to customer service about each specific order.
UberEats is a scam to begin with. They hire people through an app, and then take no responsibilty ifan order is deliverd, or in my case, ice cream is delivered after an hour (well, didn’t look like ice cream when it finally arrived).
UberEats hires drivers. They need to be held accountable for the drivers making the delivery in a timely manner.