Beware of Uber vomit scam, passenger says

Photo: Jeff Chiu, Associated Press An Uber driver in San Francisco. (File photo.)

A New York City ride-share passenger was sickened to discover that Uber charged her $200 in addition to the fare in order to clean up vomit that she supposedly spewed over the car.

But Meredith Mandel told Gothamist that when she and her companions reached their destination in Williamsburg shortly before 1:30 a.m., they left the Uber vehicle without even a belch, much less puddles of puke.

When she saw the PayPal charge — $19 plus the $200 cleaning fee — for the two-mile trip, she naturally was outraged.

She contested the bill, and Uber responded by emailing photos of the "vomit" taken by the driver and explaining that "the driver let us know that there was a mess on the trip resulting in the need for a car cleaning." Uber says 100 percent of the cleaning charges in such cases go to the driver.

Mandel's driver told Uber that the party was drunk, she said.

"I was infuriated, because I realized that it actually is a scam," she told The Gothamist.

She said inspection of the photos backs her claim:

— Some of the alleged barf appeared to be in the front seat area. Mandel said she and her two companions rode in the back.

— All the vomit conveniently landed on easily washed plastic surfaces, mainly floor mats, the plastic of the dashboard and a driver's-side door.

— No metadata showing time or date was included with the photos.

— Neither she nor her friends were drunk.

Uber passenger says she was charged $200 after 'cabbie created fake vomit pictures' https://t.co/gEWDXodjKG — Tenfingerz (@iGODWINi) March 3, 2016

Taking "CSI-Uber" one step farther, she even noted that the bright yellow color of the chunky liquid didn't match the meals the group had consumed at dinner.

"We ate really dark food, like meat," she said.

There have been at least four other cases reported nationwide of drivers allegedly staging messes in order to pocket bogus cleaning charges.

After Mandel filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, Uber refunded her the $200.

But she says she won't use Uber again — the whole experience left a bad taste in her mouth.

A representative from Uber says a refund was issued in accordance with company policy and that the incident was not indicative of a trend.