Uber Drivers In Lagos Are Using a Fake GPS App To Inflate Rider Fares (qz.com) 86
According to Quartz, some Uber drivers in Lagos have been using a fake GPS itinerary app called Lockito to illicitly bump up fares for local drivers. The app was initially created for developers to "test geofencing-based apps," but has been used by Uber drivers to inflate the cost of their trips. From the report: In some cases, inflated trips can cost riders more than double the rate they should be paying. "It's more like a parasite," says Mohammed, a driver for both Uber and Taxify in Lagos. "It sets the false GPS movement while allowing the phone also to keep track of its actual movement. The Uber app can't tell the difference between both so it just calculates both." When a driver uses Lockito for an Uber trip he or she can have the fake GPS running (and calculating a fake fare) from the pickup point to the drop off location, before the passenger has even got into the car. When the real trip starts, the real GPS starts running and calculating the actual fare. But at the end of the journey the fares from both trips (real and fake) are tallied up as one fare which the unsuspecting rider pays. Some drivers use Lockito to inflate fares by adding 1000 naira to 2000 naira extra (roughly $3 to $6) but some drivers are believed to inflate fares to exorbitant levels.
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Yeah, it's an example of a low trust society [quora.com]. Which is why, despite having vast natural resources Nigeria has a GDP(PPP) per capita of $5900 table, i.e. it does pretty badly.
https://www.cia.gov/library/pu... [cia.gov]
The opposite case in Japan. Almost no natural resource but it's a very high trust society. And it does pretty well with a GDP(PPP) per capita of $41,300.
GDP(PPP) per capita isn't everything of course. I mean I'd prefer Japan over Nigeria even if you reverse their prosperity levels. Funny thing is Japan
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This is Nigeria. Scams are 50% of their economy.
Nigeria has had this reputation throughout Africa long before the Internet. Now it's throughout the world.
Translate from monkey to human plz (Score:2, Interesting)
"[Lockito] sets the false GPS movement. have the [Lockito] fake GPS running (and calculating a fake fare) from the pickup point to the drop off location, before the passenger has even got into the car."
Why is "movement" involved in calculating a fare from a pickup point to a dropoff location? Surely this is done using a map. "Movement" makes it sound like fare calculation works by driving a physical dry run of the planned journey, over real roads but without a passenger, which is ridiculous.
What does GPS have to do with maps? I understand driver slang, "I got a GPS for my car," means I got a Tom-tom or some other computer full of maps that incidentally has a GPS receiver to help center the map, but the
Re:Translate from monkey to human plz (Score:4, Insightful)
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Why is "movement" involved in calculating a fare from a pickup point to a dropoff location? Surely this is done using a map. "Movement" makes it sound like fare calculation works by driving a physical dry run of the planned journey, over real roads but without a passenger, which is ridiculous.
“It sets the false GPS movement while allowing the phone also to keep track of its actual movement. The Uber app can’t tell the difference between both so it just calculates both.”
The movement calculation is for the route the driver takes from the start location to the destination. There is nothing wrong with calculating thie route because often times one may use a different route from the original route calculated by the GPS.
However, the part where the app accepts both routes (from Lockito and the other source) could be from their greed. This situation demonstrates that the multi-routing for the same start-end location is a problem that they have not solved. However, they take an ea
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Sorry, he asked for less fuzzy. Thanks anyway.
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Presumably, in the case of a mismatch that they determine was due to cheating, either the driver or passenger would be banned.
Re: Uhhh (Score:2)
Actually itâ(TM)s something the uber app probably can catch although not by design. A few times Iâ(TM)ve had uber drivers make completely crazy journeys (usually with me demanding they stop it). In one case a drive between two adjacent suburbs ending up nearly 10kms in the opposite direction. In all cases though when I challenged the fare in the app, the app almost instantly rectified it back to what it would have been had
The driver taken a sensible route , and refunded me the difference. Arguably
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like that never happened with Taxis (Score:1)
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In most countries like Lagos
Lagos is not a country. It's a city (and a state) in Nigeria.
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In most countries like Lagos normal Taxi rate depends if you are local, know language, foreigner, or from USA. I recall a a case where Taxi driver took me for a ride in my home town (in US). Going from an airport, he assumed I was a tourist, so he got of the highway drove a mile, made 4 right turns to get back on the same highway. At least Uber can adjust app and control drives better.
Exactly. I had something similar happen to me as a tourist; unfortunately for cab driver I knew the normal route and asked at the end of the trip I asked him why he took the long way to the airport instead of the normal route. He then simply charged me the normal lower fare rather than have me call a cop to settle a fare dispute. It's a pretty common scam run by cab drivers there, I would guess Uber has cut into their business which serves the scammers right.
I thought.. (Score:2)
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These ARE taxi drivers either moonlighting or intentionally peeing in the pool. Rate 'em 1, get 'em fired. At least you can do that with Uber. Can't do that with Taxis.
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No need to be fair. Just consensual. Sometimes the free market gives you a good that the seller knows is worthless. Free marketers have to say that there is a correction that prevents or surpasses this, or acknowledge that it's just a cost of the free market.
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This isn't "the free market". Its clearly activity that is meant to deceive / cheat the consumer. One can argue its legalities, but it isn't "the free market" where 2 people are trading goods/services in fair manner.
The problem is that ignorance is considered a fair market force by many -- any price a customer is willing to pay is by nature fair.
The main benefit of regulated markets is that they stop ignorance being a market force, because they explicitly prohibit exploiting consumer ignorance. At the end of the day, we can't expect every consumer to carry out their own due diligence on every purchase they make -- it would be totally inefficient and wouldn't benefit wider society.
Who really wants free markets?
Easy to detect... (Score:5, Insightful)
Just make sure the rider and the driver's GPS show the same route. If the routes differ, somebody (one or both) is scamming the system. Keep tracking enough fares, and it will become apparent who's scamming and who you can trust. Couple that with a bit of post processing the reported route being charged verses the total time and known traffic conditions, it's going to be really clear what's going on and then Uber can correct the charges.
Eventually, armed with a zero tolerance policy that prescribes an ever increasing level of punishment for those who attempt to scam and reimbursement for ill gotten gains, you will weed out the bad apples. You won't get away with doing this very long before Uber gives you the boot and the problem corrects itself.
Re:Easy to detect... (Score:4, Insightful)
You assume that Uber cares
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Uber loses $0.20 cents for every $1 charged to customers. They don't qualify as a business, it's a wealth redistribution scheme taking billions from clueless VC and sending them to obnoxious Lebanese who like Eurodance and stalk cute female customers.
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But they're making it up on volume.
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But they're making it up on volume.
This should work. After all, something similar was done a few years ago, it was called "CDO" and it has been a huge success, for a while.
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Uber is a credit card service. Denounce fraud and you'll get your money back or go to a dispute. Uber gets charged for each refund so it's bad business for them.
Under what Financial Services industry code of conduct do Uber operate? what credit products do they provide? What credit network do they operate (important to know what stores I can use their product in)?
Or maybe a better question is, what were you on when you wrote that?
Uber are not a credit card service, they are an illegal in most jurisdictions (and definitely immoral) taxi company. Your credit card provider is a credit card service. You perform a charge back through them and not Uber. However the
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Uber is a credit card service. Denounce fraud and you'll get your money back or go to a dispute. Uber gets charged for each refund so it's bad business for them.
Under what Financial Services industry code of conduct do Uber operate? what credit products do they provide? What credit network do they operate (important to know what stores I can use their product in)?
I thought the same thing when I read that. Then I realized it meant that Uber is a service that uses (exclusively) credit cards. So every dispute will be handled according to CC rules, and Uber will eat the cost of reversed charges.
Battery (Score:2)
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>GPS to be actively tracking their position, draining battery
what? it doesnt work like that, GPS is working 24/7 in every phone, thats how apple/google gather delicious metadata on its users.
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That is factually incorrect. [apple.com]
Apple is hoovering up your location metadata if you've enabled Location Services, but it's doing so largely through a database of known cell towers and wifi hotspots.
The real message here is ... (Score:2)
... that Uber ain't got its shit together.
Employees, employers, and customers have always taken advantage of any weaknesses on the other's part.
This is not a major problem because Uber will move to fix this one problem and fix another when someone does their QA for them.
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Employees, employers, and customers have always taken advantage of any weaknesses on the other's part.
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That's very variable. In most places with reasonable levels or regulation, taxi meters are independently regulated subject to random inspection. If the meter isn't showing the correct value, the driver or taxi company can be fined or lose their license. In London, there are 'mystery shoppers' who are paid to take trips in black cabs and can take away the driver's taxi license on the spot if he doesn't go the best route (including avoiding roads with roadworks).
A lot of taxi regulation revolves around
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That's because it's different, see. Uber's like got interwebs and an app and stuff!
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Uber has apparently failed to learn lessons that the rest of the industry has spent a century learning.
Which wouldn't even be a problem if the rest of the industry had learned something other than how to keep being shitty, like perhaps how to put up a website and do car-hailing and internet tracking.
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Its not our problem if you live in a third world country. Where I live the local cab services have had apps and tracking for years.
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Its not our problem if you live in a third world country. Where I live the local cab services have had apps and tracking for years.
They are in the minority, and none of them have an app as good as Uber's.
big data (Score:2)
can't "big data Uber" figure this out, claw back the payments, fire the drivers and refund the customers?
oh wait.. they'll lose their cut of the profits too.
Re: big data (Score:2)
can't "big data Uber" figure this out
Definitely.Dishonest drivers in Lagos, in the other hand, apparently aren't bright enough to figure out what Uber can easily figure out.
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or they are, and they're betting Uber doesn't want to cut any of its revenue.
the worst thing that will happen is Uber makes some changes to make it harder for them to rip people off.
What? it does not have speed limits? (Score:2)
Lagos, Nigeria? (Score:2)
Keep screwing people over (Score:2)
What? This is happening in Nigeria?? (Score:1)
I am shocked! Shocked, I tell you!
Use a OTP (Score:1)
In India, a similar ride hailing app (Ola) generates a 4 digit password for each ride, displayed to the rider. When you get in, you give this password to the driver and only then does the trip officially start. This would solve this problem
same old same old (Score:2)
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The only reasons I ever heard for ditching Taxis in favour of things like Uber were: 1) Taxis have absolute fares which are too high 2) Taxis have artificially limited supply making it impossible to get a taxi at busy times 3) the lack of an easy to use app that matches you with the closest taxi at the right time 4) manual payment methods.
Everyone assumed that the drivers at Uber would be no better in any way than at the Taxis, only that they'd have less regulatory capture. In fact, this has been used by th
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Hey, if I wanted a 20 year old Toyota with worn tires and no brakes I could as well stay at home and drive myself!
BeauHD the H1-B (Score:2)
It's an uncountable noun. No plural. Lago.
Man! I should have responded to that Prince (Score:2)
Once in a while the Nigerian Scam Prince seems to be telling the truth!
How does Uber calculate fares in Lagos/ (Score:3)
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In many cities taxis are not a viable means of transportation. The regulatory capture where I live is so high that taxis are limited to an absurdly low number, and therefore it is almost impossible to get one at anything approaching a "busy" time. Even at "slow" times waits for taxis can easily exceed 30-45 minutes.
This is all in an effort to inflate the value of the taxi licenses which are held and traded by a very small handful of individuals who see them as an investment in their own right, and not as pa