Cruising the streets of Kelowna as an Uber driver, Kyle Ferguson often receives ride requests which are then cancelled. It happens, and he says it is not a big deal.
However, on Aug. 24 a cancelled ride request put Ferguson out of work for nearly a month and left him almost $4,000 short on income.
Right after the cancelled ride request, Ferguson received a call from someone claiming they worked for Uber Canada.
“He knew the ride I was just on and was able to get into my app. He was texting me things through their app and through my account…. to verify if it was me,” said Ferguson.
After that phone call, Ferguson claims every time he signed into his Uber email he had issues. He contacted Uber, which instructed him to start a new account as it appeared his email and previous account had been compromised.
“I had to start a brand-new account which was a hassle because I already had an account, so the system wouldn’t let me create a new one,” said Ferguson.
For more than 20 days Ferguson says he tried to sign up for a new account or speak with a representative who could explain how someone was able to infiltrate his account and speak with him on the phone as a phoney Uber representative, but stated he received no help from the company.
Without a proper account, he was unable to drive.
“I had to speak with maybe 10 or 15 people to get a new account approved. But, in my last account I was a gold member, which gets me perks and better rides and now I don’t have that,” he explained.
Ferguson says he knows others who drive for the company who have had a similar call and dealt with equally frustrating issues.
“I just don’t know who else is going through this. I work for myself, so I don’t know,” he said.
Hitting dead-end after dead-end, Ferguson said he was finally pointed to an Uber union.
Uber Canada and UFCW Canada have an agreement that provides drivers and delivery persons on the Uber platform across Canada access to union representation. The union told Ferguson that would assist him in helping him get financial compensation for being out of work for almost a month.
Black Press Media contacted Uber Canada, to ask if the company was aware of independent contractors who may be getting hacked by someone pretending to be a Uber representative.
In a written response Uber stated this type of scam is known as an "imposter scam," something consumer protection agencies and governments have been “tracking since before the internet.”
The company also provided the following statement:
“We take this issue seriously and have a dedicated team that aims to identify, investigate and take action against fraudulent behaviour on the Uber app. Uber will never ask you for personal account information, like your password or verification code, and we remind users not to share this information with anyone. Uber continues to invest in robust anti-fraud systems and technology to help combat this issue and hold bad actors accountable.”
Uber also added that while these scams are rare on the Uber platform, the company has seen similar scams before and variations of it have been around for a while, evolving as Uber updates security controls.
Two-factor authentication is used by to make it harder for scammers to target drivers through traditional methods.
In regards to the independent contractors receiving phone calls in connection to Uber, the company said it has a recorded message for drivers when riders call through the Uber app to let them know that the call is coming from the passenger, not Uber.
On Oct. 16, Uber contacted Black Press Media to update Ferguson’s status with the company stating his Gold Tier status had been restored, however, much later than intended.
Ferguson added that he has received $1,000 in compensation from Uber for missing 24 days on the road due to the hack.
“The economy is hard and making money is tough. Having me lose 24 days and getting paid $1,000 is about $40 a day. This is not good enough,” said Ferguson. “I just wished their ability to follow up with me had been better.”
