An Aussie woman has shared an urgent warning about fake Uber drivers after she unknowingly fell for a scam and forked out nearly twice as much money for her trip.
Zanya Fletcher, 18, had been celebrating Schoolies on the Gold Coast when she arrived back at Melbourne Airport at 12pm on November 23.
Ms Fletcher revealed she had not slept since the day before and made her way to the Uber bay when she began to order a ride on the app.
A man then drove past her and asked if she needed a lift, insisting that he was an Uber driver despite not having any logos or stickers on his car.
Ms Fletcher hopped into the vehicle for the 30-minute journey back to her house.Â
Only after arriving at her destination did Ms Fletcher realise the mistake, when the driver increased the price of the ride.Â
The Uber app had quoted the price at $60, however the driver said it would cost her $110.
‘I just wanted to say, be careful when you’re getting Ubers from Melbourne Airport – and just any airport in general,’ Ms Fletcher said.   Â
Zanya Fletcher was trying to get home after returning from Schoolies when she was scammed by a fake Uber on November 23
‘There’s currently a scam going on regarding Ubers.’
During the ride, Ms Fletcher checked her phone to monitor their route, making sure she was being taken to her destination.Â
Her bags had been put in the boot of the car so she had no easy way to get out of the vehicle with her belongings if things went wrong.Â
She sat in the back seat. Ms Fletcher said the driver adjusted his rear-view mirror so he could look at her.Â
Ms Fletcher said things began to feel ‘off’ after the man began asking what her parents did for work and complimenting her on being such a ‘nice’ girl.
When they arrived at her house, the driver whipped out an EFTPOS machine and told Ms Fletcher how much the ride would cost.Â
The driver said he had added $10 since they went through a toll road, which Ms Fletcher disputed as she had been watching the trip on her maps.
‘I told him that we didn’t take the toll road and he said “oh did we not?” so then he pulled $10 from my payment but somehow it still ended up costing $110,’ she said.
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A driver claiming to be an Uber picked her up from Melbourne airport and ended up increasing the cost of her trip from $60 to $110 after taking her home (stock image)
After that dispute, Ms Fletcher said the driver became rude and did not help remove her 24 kg luggage from the boot before he took off.Â
Social media users thanked Ms Fletcher for sharing her experience and urged her to be more cautious in future.Â
‘That is super sketch but you’re doing the world a favour helping others. Also most importantly that you’re safe,’ one said.
‘I’m a Uber driver. NEVER do that!! Always book,’ another warned.Â
‘That scam is everywhere,’ a third added.
Others recalled their own stories of encountering Uber scams at the airport.Â
‘I had that happen last Christmas,’ one said.
‘The guy I had said he’d canceled my fare as DiDi wasn’t working so I needed to pay ID. I did pay ID and he charged me on the app still so paid twice.’
‘This happened to me the first day I moved here, I was on my way to the taxi rank at Melbourne Airport and I had a guy come up to me asking if I needed a taxi and I was like “yeah”,’ a second wrote.Â
‘I was looking at prices and figured it would probably be about $90-$100 to get me where I needed to be but when he arrived at my address, the total came to over $230.’
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Zanya wanted to catch an Uber home from the airport… she received a massive shock by what the driver told her when he dropped her off