Scammers and cybercriminals have found a new playground for their prey: ride-hailing apps. What’s even scarier is the complexity of the tools they use and how easy it is for scammers to actually gain access to those tools.
For example, many fake taxi drivers use GPS spoofers, auto-clickers, and numerous other programs to artificially manipulate driver availability and passenger numbers to increase their numbers and inflate fares. It’s being lifted. Another type of fraud often involves drivers using fake profiles to manipulate ratings and disguise payment and reward systems.
Although these systems are ingenious, there are certain steps that ride-hailing apps and similar service providers can adopt to curb such fraud. By doing so, you not only protect your end users and build better, more trusting relationships with them, but also protect your own business interests.
Gautam Sehgal, Country Head of India and Director of Enterprise Relationships at SHIELD, and Simon Revich, Head of Fraud Prevention at inDrive, discuss some of the most common scams users can encounter on ride-hailing apps. We talked about how to protect yourself. Protected. Edited excerpt:
What are some of the most common types of fraud prevalent among ride-hailing companies?
In the ride-hailing industry, fraud can come in many forms, with location spoofing being one of the most common. Scammers often use GPS spoofers to hide their real location and make it appear as though they are in high-demand areas when they are not.
Not only does this increase the likelihood of more rides, but it also increases wait times for legitimate users and eliminates opportunities for honest drivers.
GPS spoofing, combined with driver and passenger collusion, can escalate to artificial surge pricing. In these cases, fraudsters create and manage thousands of fake driver and passenger accounts. They place drivers in high-demand areas and use fake passenger accounts to create fake ride requests.
This allows the platform to detect spikes in demand, trigger surge prices, and increase fares. Price increases are unjustified based on actual demand, lead to customer dissatisfaction, and distort the efficiency of the overall ride-hailing system.
We have also seen ride monopolization, where fraudulent organizations use auto-clickers to accept ride requests faster than legitimate drivers can respond.
This monopolizes the available vehicles and makes it difficult for real drivers to earn a fair living. Finally, promotional abuse is extremely prevalent. Some riders create multiple fake accounts to abuse perks like “first ride free” so they can repeatedly take advantage of these promotions. This compromises the integrity and fairness of the entire system.
How do scammers use autoclickers?
Scammers use auto-clickers in ride-hailing services to automatically accept ride requests at high speed and at scale. Fraudsters exploit these tools and modified ride-hailing apps to quickly obtain ride requests the moment they become available. It’s often much faster than regular drivers can respond.
This practice, known as ride request monopolization, allows rogue drivers to monopolize available rides and gain an unfair advantage by securing more passengers. As a result, real drivers have fewer job opportunities, limited income, and less fair platforms.
Not only does this harm honest drivers, but it undermines the integrity of the ride-hailing ecosystem.
We see constant conflict between e-commerce or quick commerce delivery partners and end customers. Can this technology be applied to e-commerce?
Indeed, SHIELD’s device-first fraud intelligence is highly applicable to the e-commerce and quick commerce space. E-commerce platforms face many fraud issues, such as referral and promotion abuse.
Our technology addresses these issues by proactively detecting the source of fraud: the device itself. For example, scammers often create multiple fake accounts to exploit referral programs or claim promotions for genuine customers.
SHIELD’s device-first approach accurately detects and prevents multi-accounting, stopping repeat sign-ups and false redemptions before they occur.
Similarly, our technology uncovers tools like emulators, autoclickers, and even cloned apps that are commonly used in large-scale promotional scams. Beyond traditional forms of fraud, SHIELD is also critical to protecting the integrity of the last-mile delivery process.
SHIELD also extends its protection to third-party logistics (3PL) partners who are essential players in the quick-commerce and e-commerce ecosystem.
Fraudulent carriers can undermine the efficiency and reliability of these networks, resulting in poor service and eroding customer trust. Our technology’s ability to prevent fraud even in the last mile is critical for platforms that want to ensure growth while ensuring their customers and delivery partners are protected from fraud.
What is SHIELD’s Global Intelligence Network? How does it stop ride-hailing providers from committing fraud?
Our global intelligence network is a powerful, proactive aspect of our AI technology that enables our partners to get ahead of fraud threats they’ve never encountered before. Masu.
The core of this network is powered by continuous collection and analysis of data from over 7 billion devices and 1 billion user accounts around the world.
This vast amount of data allows SHIELD to identify new fraud patterns, including those specific to ride-hailing platforms. What makes global intelligence networks particularly effective is that they can be deployed around the world in real time.
Patterns of fraud do not exist in isolation, and what happens in one part of the world can quickly spread to another. SHIELD’s network tracks every type of scam we’ve ever encountered, from the most common schemes to new and sophisticated techniques developed by fraudsters.
By synchronizing attack patterns globally, SHIELD protects not just ride-hailing platforms, but all platforms, from known threats as well as new fraud tactics that may not yet surface on the platform. protect you.
Does inDrive & SHIELD take into account that there may be cases of driver fraud? How does inDrive & SHIELD plan to protect drivers?
Yes, both inDrive and SHIELD recognize the inequities faced by drivers, including scams that directly target drivers, such as fake ride requests and payment fraud. Our partnership is dedicated to challenging this inequity and contributing to leveling the playing field.
As mentioned earlier, fraudulent activities such as fake ride requests, spoofing locations, and abuse of promotions can create unfairness on the part of drivers as well. SHIELD is designed to protect your business from these threats by identifying and blocking suspicious accounts and activity in real-time.
By stopping fraud at its source, we restore the trust and fairness drivers deserve, allowing them to focus on providing great service. Our safeguards create a safer and more trustworthy environment for both inDrive drivers and passengers, ensuring the integrity of every transaction and reinforcing our belief that hard work is valued and appreciated.
