The common scams
1. The fake driver and the payment link
A new profile offers a ride cheaper than everyone else's. Once you're in touch, they move the conversation to a call or WhatsApp and send a link "to confirm your seat". The link is a fake payment page that takes your money or your card details, and the driver disappears.
2. "Pay in advance to hold the seat"
The driver asks for the full fare, or a "token amount", by UPI before the trip. Then they cancel, stop answering or never turn up.
3. The UPI collect request
Instead of sending you money, the scammer sends a payment request dressed up as a refund or a booking confirmation. Approving it with your UPI PIN sends money out of your account. You never need your UPI PIN to receive money.
4. Fake customer care numbers
Search for a ride app's helpline and you may find numbers posted by scammers. They ask you to install a screen-sharing app, or to share an OTP "to process your refund". Use only the help section inside the app.
5. A fake fare screen
In one reported case, a rider said a driver showed a fake app screen with an inflated fare at the end of the trip. Pay the amount shown in your own app, not on the driver's phone.
What BlaBlaCar warns its users about
BlaBlaCar, the long-distance carpooling platform, publishes a scam warning for its users in India. It says fake drivers may try to make you pay outside the app by sending a link, a phone number or an email address; that fake profiles are usually created hours or days earlier, have no ratings and often charge less than similar rides; and that if a driver pressures you to pay in advance, you can tell them you'll pay on the day, in the car. The same advice works on any platform.
Warning signs
- A brand-new profile with no ratings and a price well below everyone else's.
- Pressure to leave the app for WhatsApp, a call or email.
- Any request to pay before you've met: a link, a QR code, a "token amount".
- Urgency: "only one seat left, pay in the next ten minutes".
- Requests for an OTP or your UPI PIN, or to install an app.
Five rules that stop almost all of them
- Never pay a stranger before you've met them.
- Keep the conversation in the app.
- Pay only inside the official app, or by UPI to the person in front of you after the ride.
- Never share an OTP or your UPI PIN, and never install an app someone asks you to.
- Use only the help section inside the app, never a number from a search result.
If you've been scammed
- Call your bank immediately to block your card or flag the UPI transaction.
- Report it on 1930, the national cybercrime helpline, or at cybercrime.gov.in. The sooner you report, the better the chance of freezing the money.
- Report the profile to the platform so it's taken down.
How Sobat is designed against this
Sobat never takes payments, so there's no booking fee, payment link or deposit to fake. You see the ride first, meet at its public pickup point, travel in a cab booked through a regular ride app, and settle your share by UPI only after you've ridden together. Chat works without phone numbers. If anyone on Sobat asks you for money before a ride, treat it as a red flag and report them.
More: how to share a cab with strangers safely.