An Australian woman has issued a warning on TikTok after an unnerving experience while trying to get home after a night out.
In a short clip, Gemma Dimond recalls the hair-raising moment she realised something was a bit off when her Uber driver cancelled her trip immediately after she hopped in his car.
“I booked an Uber home and as I got into the Uber I guess the driver cancelled the trip,” she said.
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Her scrapped ride was the first red flag, then the driver made a strange request.
“He’s like ‘oh, looks like the app is glitching can you just give me your address and I’ll put it into my maps and work out how much it would’ve been?’”
Dimond said she noticed the man had another app open on his phone, to calculate the new ride that would be unmonitered by Uber.
He then suggested she could pay him via bank transfer.
“I was like oh no it’s a work account so it needs to be on that card.”
The young woman instructed the driver to pull over where she then contacted a friend who waited for her until she could book a new ride.
Concluding her story, Dimond urged other riders to keep their wits about them.
“I don’t love it, keep your eyes out,” she said.
TikTok users including Perth influencer Jacquie Alexander shared similar experiences in the comments.
“This exact thing happened to me in Feb from Melbourne airport and I told them the same thing and they took me back. I think it’s so that they get the full amount of the trip rather than having Uber take a percentage of the fare,” one user wrote.
“YES this happened to nathan and i at melb airport it was so scary, so glad you’re safe,” Jacquie added.
“Something like this happened to me a few years ago – I got into the Uber but got a gut feeling that things weren’t okay so I didn’t close the door all the way. He said that he had a private driving business so he would cancel the trip and asked for the address. I got out of the car immediately! I hope you’re okay, it’s such a terrifying feeling ❤️,” a third remarked.
Dimond said she reported the encounter to Uber and wanted to share her experience in case anyone else found themselves in a similar situation.
Uber confirmed that Dimond’s driver suggesting she pay for her trip outside of the platform should not have happened.
“Fraudulent activity such as driver-partners encouraging riders to pay for a trip outside of the Uber platform is a clear breach of Uber’s Community Guidelines and this kind of behaviour can result in driver-partners permanently losing access to the app,” an Uber spokesperson told PerthNow.
“We encourage riders to report behaviour such as this via the help section of our app, so we can take action right away.
“We encourage all riders to familiarise themselves with the steps to take before entering a vehicle, including checking the drivers’ photo and licence number, as well as utilising the optional PIN verification safety feature.”