Impact Across Drivers, Restaurants & Consumers
For gig workers, fraud cuts both ways. Some drivers get their accounts stolen or their identities are used to commit scams. But most honest drivers aren’t being tricked into scams; they feel the impact in other ways.
Often, it’s bad actors who figure out ways to cheat the system, and that ends up hurting everyone else. For example, a driver using a cloned version of the app on their phone may unfairly grab more jobs. That means that rule-following drivers end up with fewer delivery requests, which directly impacts how much they can earn in a day. Because the job has high turnover and fast payouts, criminals see driver accounts as easy targets. And when fraud becomes more common, platforms may respond by tightening rules or slowing down payments, changes that also impact honest workers just trying to do their jobs.
For restaurants, establishments can be hit hard by both direct and indirect losses from fraud. Account theft allows fraudsters to steal legitimate earnings, while refund and promotion abuse drains marketing budgets and makes it harder to measure real growth. For small businesses with tight margins, even a small increase in fraud can be the difference between profit and loss.
Handling fraud cases also takes time away from serving real customers.
The last category, consumers, typically use delivery apps fairly, but those who don’t can cause big problems. One common scam is claiming food was never delivered or was poor quality just to get money back. Some fraudsters use many accounts to get free promotions and refunds. More advanced tricks, like tampered payment devices or fake delivery drivers, can lead to big money losses and can destroy trust in the platform. Even one bad experience can push a customer to leave for good.
