GREELEY, Colo. — Denver7 Investigates is looking into a scam targeting Uber drivers in Colorado.
When Leo Jodoin is not volunteering for Meals on Wheels delivery in Greeley, he drives for Uber.
"I love driving, and it made even more sense to me because I drive a Tesla electric car," he said. "So I don't have to pay for gas."
But his retirement side hustle went sideways last month.
"I got a request for a ride, and immediately after they canceled it, I got a phone call," said Jodoin.
The caller claimed to be with Uber Support.
"They then told me that someone had complained about their ride a couple of days before — they got into the car and smelled alcohol and said that I was driving erratically and thought that I was driving drunk. Well, this wasn't true," Jodoin recalled.
Eventually, the caller agreed the claim was false and offered to compensate Jodoin for his time and canceled rides. This is where things get complicated. Over several days, the caller had Jodoin link their debit card and bank account to his Uber app. Instead of giving him money, the scammers took what Jodoin was making on rides during that period.
"They took $388 and a little bit of change, which is not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but it's money that I earned," said Jodoin.
Jodoin said Uber was not responsive and later deactivated his account, claiming he had duplicate profiles.
"To lose my privileges to drive for Uber because of it just seemed like I was being just tossed to the side because they didn't want to deal with it," he said.
So Jodoin reached out to Denver7 Investigates, which found headlines across the country showingsimilar stories.
"It's a constant problem. People will post about this exact kind of scam," said Robert Garrison, a Denver7 reporter and part-time Uber driver.
Garrison said scammers called him with a similar story and he hung up.
"Once you have access to your Uber driver account, they can just take your earnings pretty quickly," he said. "Uber doesn't really warn their drivers that this is a very common scam, and it's probably impacting hundreds of drivers out there."
In a statement, a spokesperson for Uber said the company "[takes] this issue seriously" and is investing in "robust anti-fraud systems and technology."
“We take this issue seriously and have a dedicated team that aims to identify, investigate and take action against fraudulent behavior on the Uber app. Uber will never ask you for personal account information, like your password or verification code, and we remind users not to share this information with anyone. Uber continues to invest in robust anti-fraud systems and technology to help combat this issue and hold bad actors accountable.”
Jodoin said Uber is now offering to refund him and re-activate his account.
"I really appreciate [Denver7] calling them because it got them off a square one and got them talking to me," said Jodoin. "It's made a big difference for me."
Still, after being taken for a ride by scammers, he is not sure if he's ready to drive for Uber again.
"I did everything that I could that was right. But they still got in," he said.
