Uber drivers are renting out their accounts to unvetted strangers – and there are terrifying stories to tell
"I'm taking a shortcut, do you know it?"
Something came over me that I had no idea was inside. I didn’t think about how fast the car was going; about injuring myself; about what I’d do next. I just clicked open my seatbelt, opened the door and got out, my knees smashing into the tarmac.
I had spent a lovely, chilled evening at a close friend’s new flat in Lewisham, eating pasta and watching Love Island All Stars, no doubt talking the whole way through about who knows what.
At about 10.30pm I decided it was probably time to head home, just a short journey via either overground or DLR. It was late January and it was dark. I felt a bit iffy about waiting at either station or spending time walking through residential areas in a place I didn’t know, so I decided that an Uber would be both easier and safer.
As usual, I headed out to the kerb when the app said the car was about two minutes away, and I waited a few minutes. The car that arrived could be heard from way up the road, blasting sports commentary from the radio. There was also cigarette smoke coming out of the windows, and honestly, I kick myself whenever I think about what happened next because I knew. I knew it was odd. I knew it wasn’t like any Uber I’d seen before. What did I say about intuition? Well, I ignored mine passing it off as anxiety.
The registration and car model matched the one I was waiting for, so I got into the car.
“Hi,” he said, looking back at me as I got into the back seat, and drew his cigarette to his lips.
Many women will have experienced the stream of questions that followed: where I was going, where I’d been, if I had a boyfriend. He asked if I’d had a good time, if I had been drinking. I hadn’t – not that it matters.
I watched the map and shared it with my husband. Just a few minutes into the journey I knew it was off.
“He’s taking me a different way”
The driver turned the car into a housing estate – I could see the sign as we went in – and my stomach lurched.
“I’m taking a shortcut,” he said. “Do you know this area?”
I said yes, even though that was a lie. I later found out that many, many people have also lied to their Uber drivers about something. Whether it be where they were going, whether they had a partner, so many of us have done it.
It was a one-way car park we were in now, and I could see the red and white striped barrier up ahead. Did he live here? Was he going to stop the car soon, or did he know how to get through that barrier? What was beyond it? Had he always known, maybe even before I got in the car, that he wouldn’t be following my route?
I didn’t think about the consequences of my actions at all; it was truly like I went into a trance.
My heart thumped. I picked up my bag, unclipped my seatbelt and opened the door. Luckily, the car wasn’t going too fast with it being a car park. Before I knew it, my body smashed into the tarmac, knees first, my belongings strewn. I gathered myself in a second, and I ran.
Immediately shaking and running down streets I didn’t know, I phoned my husband who helped me think. “Get back to your friend’s house, OK? I am coming to get you right now.”
Unbeknown to me at the time, he also took a screenshot of the Uber map, which clearly shows the car on a dead-end street.
I was quite evidently in shock, and was extremely lucky with how my friend and husband helped me afterwards.
A few days after, I was having lunch with my husband and a friend of his, and we told him what had happened in the Uber.
“Did his face match his photograph?” he asked, and I pulled out the screenshot.
“He has no picture,” I said, “so I’m not sure.”
“Well, that’s definitely against the rules.”
He went on to tell us how he’d seen something on Reddit about Uber drivers renting out their accounts to make a bit more money from them.
For the renters, it means they have an established, licensed account and a star rating – somebody else’s – that they can use without being vetted.
My interest was immediately piqued: my speeding, smoking, football-blasting driver supposedly had 4.96 stars.
I naturally turned to Reddit, and it’s full of information about Uber drivers not being who they say they are – on Eats, too – and some accounts aren’t just rented, they’re bought. This is a huge, widespread issue.
In just a few minutes on the platform, I found hundreds of messages across multiple threads which included people asking for or offering access to someone else’s Uber account. They also mentioned Facebook groups dedicated to it, and when I researched into this a bit further, it turns out that Tech Transparency Project uncovered 58 such groups.
I also discovered plenty of people selling their services within these groups, promising ‘permanent reactivation’ for deactivated accounts, account creation, even ‘background checks’. It’s clear that people are completely gaming the system – who knows who your driver really is?
And it’s not just me – I’ve since heard from many women about their own dodgy Uber experiences, regardless of the account rentals.
I heard stories of being driven beyond their destination after dark, drivers kicking off about safety features being used, shouting, loads of personal questioning, falling asleep at the wheel — and I know there is worse. Who knew what my experience could have become? The Google News box will give you a good idea.
What Uber says about it
Uber responded to the initial event by closing down my account ‘for driver safety’, which I found pretty ironic.
When I contacted them to find out what they’re doing about this account rental issue, they reactivated my account and apologised for the inconvenience. I told them it had nothing to do with ‘inconvenience’ and that I wouldn’t be using Uber again, so I don’t want my account. I just wanted to know what they wanted to say, if anything, about the account rental issue. I asked them what they’re doing about it.
In response, they told me that UK drivers are required by regulation to have a profile photo and are not allowed to share their accounts.
They also told me I couldn’t directly quote them and couldn’t attribute these words to anyone in particular. The whole thing was very confidence-building.
They also told me that for my trip, the driver had a valid photograph and had passed an ID check. My driver didn’t have a photograph at the time of the trip, and I have a screenshot to prove it; this says nothing to whether the driver was who was registered to that account.
Uber went on to tell me about their safety features including sharing your trip with someone (the reason for my screenshot), the in-app emergency button (the reason a woman I know got screamed at by her driver) and GPS (so you can see how off-route we were, right?) – none of which make any difference whatsoever if your driver isn’t who they say they are.
Make of that what you will – I personally will not be going anywhere near that app again.