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Uber Drivers In Lagos Are Using a Fake GPS App To Inflate Rider Fares (qz.com)
According to Quartz, some Uber drivers in Lagos have been using a fake GPS itinerary app called Lockito to illicitly bump up fares for local drivers. The app was initially created for developers to "test geofencing-based apps," but has been used by Uber drivers to inflate the cost of their trips. From the report: In some cases, inflated trips can cost riders more than double the rate they should be paying. "It's more like a parasite," says Mohammed, a driver for both Uber and Taxify in Lagos. "It sets the false GPS movement while allowing the phone also to keep track of its actual movement. The Uber app can't tell the difference between both so it just calculates both." When a driver uses Lockito for an Uber trip he or she can have the fake GPS running (and calculating a fake fare) from the pickup point to the drop off location, before the passenger has even got into the car. When the real trip starts, the real GPS starts running and calculating the actual fare. But at the end of the journey the fares from both trips (real and fake) are tallied up as one fare which the unsuspecting rider pays. Some drivers use Lockito to inflate fares by adding 1000 naira to 2000 naira extra (roughly $3 to $6) but some drivers are believed to inflate fares to exorbitant levels.
"[Lockito] sets the false GPS movement. have the [Lockito] fake GPS running (and calculating a fake fare) from the pickup point to the drop off location, before the passenger has even got into the car."
Why is "movement" involved in calculating a fare from a pickup point to a dropoff location? Surely this is done using a map. "Movement" makes it sound like fare calculation works by driving a physical dry run of the planned journey, over real roads but without a passenger, which is ridiculous.
What does GPS have to do with maps? I understand driver slang, "I got a GPS for my car," means I got a Tom-tom or some other computer full of maps that incidentally has a GPS receiver to help center the map, but the maps are its main feature. However altering GPS coordinates can't alter map data.
Can we get an explanation of what's going on that uses words according to their true meanings instead of this fuzzy-headed nonsense?
I thought you had to be.a corrupt taxi driver to do something like this. Hm, I guess stuff like this happens in 'the free market' after all. Go figure.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Just make sure the rider and the driver's GPS show the same route. If the routes differ, somebody (one or both) is scamming the system. Keep tracking enough fares, and it will become apparent who's scamming and who you can trust. Couple that with a bit of post processing the reported route being charged verses the total time and known traffic conditions, it's going to be really clear what's going on and then Uber can correct the charges.
Eventually, armed with a zero tolerance policy that prescribes an ever increasing level of punishment for those who attempt to scam and reimbursement for ill gotten gains, you will weed out the bad apples. You won't get away with doing this very long before Uber gives you the boot and the problem corrects itself.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Actually itâ(TM)s something the uber app probably can catch although not by design. A few times Iâ(TM)ve had uber drivers make completely crazy journeys (usually with me demanding they stop it). In one case a drive between two adjacent suburbs ending up nearly 10kms in the opposite direction. In all cases though when I challenged the fare in the app, the app almost instantly rectified it back to what it would have been had
The driver taken a sensible route , and refunded me the difference. Arguably these bogus fares should show up in the logs as having had absurd routing, and presumably thus fix it. The problem is most passengers probably donâ(TM)t know about challenging the fare
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
... that Uber ain't got its shit together.
Employees, employers, and customers have always taken advantage of any weaknesses on the other's part.
This is not a major problem because Uber will move to fix this one problem and fix another when someone does their QA for them.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
can't "big data Uber" figure this out, claw back the payments, fire the drivers and refund the customers?
oh wait.. they'll lose their cut of the profits too.
If the app sees the entire trip completed in a few micro seconds, should it not detect the near light speed travel?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
The same country that has become famous after the "Nigerian scam"? Who would have thought.
Presumably, in the case of a mismatch that they determine was due to cheating, either the driver or passenger would be banned.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
and they're retaliate as best they can. It'd be nice to live in a world where I'm not constantly either being a mark or feeling like I should be turning others into marks.
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I am shocked! Shocked, I tell you!
Palaces, barricades, threats, meet promises
In India, a similar ride hailing app (Ola) generates a 4 digit password for each ride, displayed to the rider. When you get in, you give this password to the driver and only then does the trip officially start. This would solve this problem
basically all the old reasons everyone claimed as a need to ditch taxis for something like Uber are now the exact same trustworthy issues faced with Uber.
In most countries like Lagos
Lagos is not a country. It's a city (and a state) in Nigeria.
The downside is that it would require the passenger's GPS to be actively tracking their position, draining battery. Currently the passenger's GPS isn't involved in tracking the trip at all. When you open the app it shows you the location reported by the driver's device.
Hey, if I wanted a 20 year old Toyota with worn tires and no brakes I could as well stay at home and drive myself!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It's an uncountable noun. No plural. Lago.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I've only used Uber once, but I thought a big part of the appeal was that it quoted you the price up-front and it then didn't matter what route the driver took or how busy it was, you paid the same amount? Does the Lagos version charge you per mile instead?
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Once in a while the Nigerian Scam Prince seems to be telling the truth!
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
In most countries like Lagos normal Taxi rate depends if you are local, know language, foreigner, or from USA. I recall a a case where Taxi driver took me for a ride in my home town (in US). Going from an airport, he assumed I was a tourist, so he got of the highway drove a mile, made 4 right turns to get back on the same highway. At least Uber can adjust app and control drives better.
Exactly. I had something similar happen to me as a tourist; unfortunately for cab driver I knew the normal route and asked at the end of the trip I asked him why he took the long way to the airport instead of the normal route. He then simply charged me the normal lower fare rather than have me call a cop to settle a fare dispute. It's a pretty common scam run by cab drivers there, I would guess Uber has cut into their business which serves the scammers right.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Yeah, it's an example of a low trust society. Which is why, despite having vast natural resources Nigeria has a GDP(PPP) per capita of $5900 table, i.e. it does pretty badly.
https://www.cia.gov/library/pu...
The opposite case in Japan. Almost no natural resource but it's a very high trust society. And it does pretty well with a GDP(PPP) per capita of $41,300.
GDP(PPP) per capita isn't everything of course. I mean I'd prefer Japan over Nigeria even if you reverse their prosperity levels. Funny thing is Japan got levelled completely in WWII and grew very quickly back to first world prosperity. So actually a Japan rebuilding from devastation but keeping its high trust society status would be an awesome place to be. Same with the more high trust bits of the USA. The low trust bits of the USA are almost as bad as Nigeria though.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
When I use Uber it knows my location and destination and gives me the fare in advance. I get billed that no matter what route the driver takes so distance doesn't seem to be a factor in the final fare price. If fares get changed in Lagos based on the spoofed distance, it would seem to be easy for Uber to find the scammers. Drivers would either be traveling at unrealistic speeds based on the time of travel and distance reported or not be available if the don't close out the trip and take far to long for the trip. Since it adds the two trips it would seem easy for Uber to compare the reported length, duration and fare vs an Uber standard length, duration and fare and detect scammers; refund passengers and withhold payments from drivers.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
This is Nigeria. Scams are 50% of their economy.
Nigeria has had this reputation throughout Africa long before the Internet. Now it's throughout the world.
In many cities taxis are not a viable means of transportation. The regulatory capture where I live is so high that taxis are limited to an absurdly low number, and therefore it is almost impossible to get one at anything approaching a "busy" time. Even at "slow" times waits for taxis can easily exceed 30-45 minutes.
This is all in an effort to inflate the value of the taxi licenses which are held and traded by a very small handful of individuals who see them as an investment in their own right, and not as part of the business of providing transportation services.
This is the real reason people are willing to turn a blind eye to the fact that Uber is in fact an unlicensed taxi service. It's not that people really believe that Uber isn't a taxi service, it's that the existing taxi system is so broken by regulatory capture that people are willing to do anything to find an alternative.