Mobile app-based cab services have become a part of our lives. With increase in the customer base, cab services like Ola and Uber have also been criticised for various reasons ranging from drivers cancelling trips stating lame reasons to the recent surge pricing issue.

Neha Garg, a resident of Delhi took an Uber cab to travel to Gurgaon. During the ride, she engaged in a conversation with the driver and he confessed being a part of an Ola scam before he switched to Uber. She shared the entire conversation in a series of tweets.



Neha's Uber driver got annoyed when her UberPool co-rider made them wait. The driver wanted to cancel the ride because the co-rider was being "nasty and stubborn" about her pickup location, but Neha asked him not to. He started talking to Neha after dropping the other passenger.

He started the conversation saying, "Aise passengaro ko sabak seekhaane ke liye toh inki ride cancel kar deni chahiye. Unke ghar ke aagey aakar. Kya kar lenge!" which translated to "such passengers should be taught a lesson. Drivers should cancel the ride after reaching the location. What will they do?" and then said that when he used to work with Ola, he never even used to go to the location.

When Neha asked him to explain how that works, he told her about a software that can change a smartphone user's location to show they are at another location and that he used this software to trick passengers into pay for hefty waiting charges.

HOW DOES THIS WORK?



If you didn't know this earlier, let us tell you that Ola and Uber drivers make more money from the 'incentive' they get from the companies than from what they earn from the passengers.

So, by cheating the company by making fake rides, they achieve their target of the minimum number of rides they need to make to ensure the incentive.

To make it more clear, here is an example. If an Ola/Uber driver makes a trip of 10 km that fetches him Rs 300 from the passenger, and he makes ten similar trips, his income that day will be Rs 3000. This money goes to the company and the drivers will get an amount after the firm deducts a certain amount of money for providing their brand name, platform and technology. Say this amount is Rs 1000. So, for ten trips, the driver makes Rs 2000. Minus the amount of money he spends on fuel, say Rs 1000. Total income of the driver from the passenger after making ten trips in a day comes to Rs 1000. But, over and above this, for making 10 trips, the companies give them an incentive of say Rs 3000. That is their profit, and that is why they associate themselves with such companies.

Hence, if they make 10 fake rides in a 6 km radius, even if they shell out Rs 1000 from their pocket, they ensure an income (in incentive) of Rs 3000.

An Ola spokesperson told India Today, "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 parallely 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.

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 check 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."

A source close to Ola also told India Today that the company had noticed a few drivers engaging in such a scam and that they used some 20 odd SIM cards and they had fired these drivers, and the story narrated to Neha by the said driver is amplified beyond limits.



Meanwhile, Twitterati have taken the cabbie's confession with a pinch of salt and have been raising various doubts. Neha tweeted saying, "For those wondering on the mechanics, I myself am not too sure, my ride ended before the story did, so we jumped straight to the end," and "this is just what he told me. I'm sure there's much more to it. I wish I had booked a longer ride, to hear the whole story."

Her last tweet said, "would request people to not attack me personally, sending threatening DMs and accusatory replies. Calm down. I didn't produce the story."

