October 17, 2023
Uber Eats was scammed out of over $1 million by two young men from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Trayon Morgan and Roy Blackwood were arrested by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office on August 7, 2023, after an eight-month-long investigation uncovered their fraudulent scheme.
The scam began in January 2022, when Morgan created several fake Uber Eats accounts, both as a customer and a courier. He would then place a fake order as a customer, and then “accept” the same order as a courier. Uber Eats provides couriers with preauthorized and preloaded credit cards that can be used to purchase up to $700 in a single transaction. Morgan would then cancel the fake customer order, and then use the Uber Eats credit card to purchase gift cards.
Blackwood acted as Morgan’s accomplice, escorting him to different Walgreens stores to spend the gift cards. In a single day, the two scammers visited 27 different Walgreens locations, causing Uber a loss of over $5,000. Morgan used stolen and fabricated identities of Uber drivers, putting his own photo on their (legit) license information.
Uber worked with law enforcement to investigate the scam, and using unspecified “investigative techniques,” they were able to confirm Morgan’s involvement with the fake accounts. Arrest warrants were issued on August 7, and Blackwood and Morgan were apprehended on August 16 and August 22, respectively.
Morgan and Blackwood are now charged with organizing a scheme to defraud and grand theft. An Uber spokesperson said that the company is grateful for the efforts of law enforcement in the case. Uber continues to invest in “robust anti-fraud systems” and technology, the spokesperson said, which allowed the company’s Global Investigations Team to “proactively alert” law enforcement about the scam.
The sources for this piece include an article in TechSpot.
