CABBIE OR SCAMMER? BEWARE OF THIS FAKE BILL APP
Delhiites are alarmed after a trend of cab drivers using apps to scam passengers into paying more than their quoted bill amounts has come to light
What would you do if a cab driver presented you an inflated bill amount upon reaching your destination? A Delhiite, whose Reddit thread recently did rounds on social media, says he booked a cab from the Indira Gandhi International Airport to Rajendra Place in West Delhi. On condition of anonymity,
he tells us, he booked a cab for ₹340. However, upon reaching the destination, the driver presented him with a bill that stood at ₹648.
He says: “The next day, I checked my app to find that the bill was only ₹127. I analysed a screenshot I took of the driver’s phone and noticed it showed two icons of the same app and misspelt my name. In fact, I was informed that the driver shut the GPS midway, lowering the original fare.”
An officer from the Cyber Crime Cell of Delhi Police, on condition of anonymity, tells us, “We have noticed the presence of some fake apps that are made to look similar to the payment gateways in popular cab aggregator apps. There are several ways these apps can be made by developers.”
Leena Batra, a resident of Laxmi Nagar shares,“My colleague and I faced a similar incident earlier this year while returning from the airport. The driver showed me an app that looked similar to a screenshot I saw on social media. While I paid at the time, we later complained and got a refund.”
Another Delhiite, Aditya Ghosh, resident of Vasant Kunj adds, “Recently, while booking a ride from Saket to Vasant
Kunj, the app showed me a fare of ₹250 but upon arrival the driver showed me a bill of ₹500. I immediately checked the fare on my phone, which was the original ₹250, and this made me confident to refuse to pay the cab driver any extra money.”
Alerting frequent travellers,
Hemant Tiwari, DCP, IFSO, adds, “In such scenarios the people (riders) should rely on the fare shown on their own mobile app. If the driver insists otherwise then the riders should report the matter to the cab aggregators or/and to the police control room, which is 112.”