{"id":917107,"date":"2026-10-05T15:22:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T15:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/917107\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T15:22:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T15:22:22","slug":"melbourne-airport-uber-woman-says-she-was-fearful-for-her-life-in-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/917107\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne Airport Uber: Woman says she was \u2018fearful\u2019 for her life in scam"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman says she feared for her life as an Uber driver at Melbourne<\/a> Airport tried to scam<\/a> her and locked her in his vehicle.<\/p>\n

The concerning incident prompted the airport\u2019s CEO to demand a \u201cplease explain\u201d from the ride-share company.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The woman said she was locked in the Uber which she got into at Melbourne Airport.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

Fatima said she was \u201ca bit fearful for my life\u201d during the incident on Friday night. <\/p>\n

Returning from a business trip, she had her Uber PIN ready to share with the driver, so he\u2019d have her destination.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the system used at Melbourne and other airports.<\/p>\n

She said they were already on the freeway when the driver claimed her PIN didn\u2019t work. He told Fatima she needed to transfer him money, plus pay for tolls.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to him, \u2018You\u2019re obviously scamming me and I\u2019m not gonna pay that much\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to open the car door, it was locked, and, I freaked out by that point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, what if he drives off, what if, you know, he hurts me?\u201c<\/p>\n

She checked online and realised other passengers had been targeted before.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe says I ordered the wrong Uber and he threatens to just drop me off right there unless I transfer him money,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also felt kind of like I didn\u2019t really have a choice, my bags were in the back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fatima called Triple Zero and said she was in a car with an Uber driver who wouldn\u2019t let her out.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the man dropped Fatima off at home and later returned with her second suitcase.<\/p>\n

Chief executive Lorie Argus said Melbourne Airport would be investigating.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s terrible, and it\u2019s not an expectation that we expect for a welcome to Melbourne, and it\u2019s one that we will absolutely be following up with Uber,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A woman says she feared for her life after an Uber driver at Melbourne Airport tried to scam her and locked her in his vehicle.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

The advice for passengers is if there is a problem with the PIN, don\u2019t get in the car in the first place.<\/p>\n

But that can be difficult when it\u2019s busy and drivers often don\u2019t enter the PIN code until after they\u2019ve already started the journey.<\/p>\n

While Uber was investigating, Fatima said police told her they wouldn\u2019t be unless more passengers reported bad behaviour.<\/p>\n

\u201c[That] was really upsetting because it happened once and once is enough,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

An Uber spokesperson said it advised riders not to get into a car before confirming the driver\u2019s photo, number plate, and vehicle type, or with the six-digit PIN code at Melbourne Airport. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf details don\u2019t match, they should report it to Uber\u2019s on-the-ground team at the airport, to the airport security, or via the help section in the Uber app,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUber\u2019s community guidelines make clear that off-app pickups and soliciting riders for cash or other payments outside the Uber platform are prohibited. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhere Uber receives a report that a driver-partner has attempted to solicit an off-app or cash trip, we have processes in place to investigate and take appropriate action. <\/p>\n

\u201cBreaches of our community guidelines and this kind of behaviour can result in driver-partners permanently losing access to the app.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman says she feared for her life as an Uber driver at Melbourne Airport tried to scam…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":917108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-917107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=917107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/917108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}