Florida men charged with scamming $1M out of Uber Eats
Broward County men accused of using fake names to place and accept Uber Eats orders, funnel money into gift cards instead of food
The sheriff is calling them "Uber cheats."
Florida investigators have charged a pair of Broward County men with a ravenous Uber Eats scam that cost the company more than $1 million.
Trayon Morgan, 21, and Roy Blackwood, 38, allegedly bit off "more than they can chew" when they uncovered a loophole that allowed them to convert prepaid company credit into gift cards by pretending to be both Uber Eats customers and delivery drivers, according to authorities.
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"Morgan used the Uber Eats software application and would act as the customer and the courier," the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said Friday in a statement. "He would place a grocery order as a consumer for pickup under a fake account, then accept the order as the courier."
UBER LETS TEENS CREATE SUPERVISED ACCOUNTS
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---|---|---|---|---|
UBER | UBER TECHNOLOGIES INC. | 70.06 | +0.46 | +0.66% |
LYFT | LYFT INC. | 16.69 | -0.08 | -0.48% |
Then, Uber would provide him with a preauthorized credit of up to $700 per purchase.
However, according to investigators, he would cancel the consumer’s order and spend the credit on a gift card instead.
On one day in January alone, detectives allegedly watched the pair scam Uber out of more than $5,000, buying gift cards at 27 different Walgreens stores.
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"Morgan created several fake accounts to keep the fraud going," the sheriff’s office alleged. "He would often use stolen and fabricated identities of Uber drivers, using their license information and altering it with his own photo."
Morgan and Blackwood have been charged with organized scheme to defraud and grand theft.