Uber scams are quite common these days, and the most popular or the most effortless among them involves drivers getting the customer or rider to cancel first so they can still collect the fees. However, this backfired for one Uber driver in Chicago, Illinois, as he ultimately declared his scam attempt a lost cause despite waiting 45 minutes for the rider to cancel.
This rather protracted scam battle was documented by X user Roy Wood Jr., who posted the video of the Uber encounter on his personal social media account on November 24. Wood was trying to get an Uber ride in Chicago when a driver named Ahmad accepted his request; however, the X user was surprised that Ahmad didn’t pick him up and kept dallying for several minutes, which was when he knew it was a scam attempt.
To Wood’s surprise, the Uber driver waited for 45 minutes, hoping that Wood would cancel so he could keep the cancellation fee that Wood paid. “Most hold on for 5 or 10 mins before giving up but Ahmad held on for 45 MINS!” claims Wood, based on his experience. Ultimately, Wood won the waiting game, and Ahmad eventually canceled instead of the rider. Wood apparently even messaged Ahmad, trying to resolve the matter and call out the scam, but didn’t seem to get a reply.
For Wood, however, he somehow (or perhaps jokingly) found Ahmad’s Uber scam attempt commendable, especially with how persistent he was with waiting. “Respect. You lost today, but you gonna be a great scammer one day,” says Wood in his tweet. Previously, Wood’s experience with the most stubborn Uber scammer was only 25 minutes of waiting, something Ahmad broke with his rather impressive 45-minute patience.
How the Uber Scam Works
For those new to this kind of scam, Uber charges the rider a cancellation fee, which then goes to the Uber driver, provided the rider cancels after the 5-10 minute mark. Some Uber drivers have started abusing this driver protection feature by stalling often deceptively, hoping that desperate riders cancel, so the drivers get paid either way. Drivers won’t get to collect the fee if they were the ones who cancelled.
While the 45-minute scam battle was quite a tale, it appears there were even longer but less-documented Uber scam battles. A Reddit user even claimed last week that they waited almost 80 minutes for the scamming driver, who parked the car and even went inside a bar while they waited for the rider to cancel. The incident has since been allegedly reported.
However, it appears many people have resigned to the fact that Uber won’t do a thing about these scammers, supposedly. “They likely won’t be kicked off tbh. but you can report it 🤷🏻♀️” assumes a commenter, with another pointing out just how unprofitable the scam is, “Driver really playing the long game for $4,” though apparently, some can have elaborate setups for it, “If you’ve got 10 phones with 10 different accounts that’s $40.”
