[Bibendum90949]

I've just found this news on how cab drivers in Mumbai manipulated the Ola app to cheat customers.

It's surprising that the cab aggregator couldn't unearth the fraud even after customers complaining and it took Mumbai police to bring the fraudsters to the books.

On November 1, the Mumbai Police arrested three Ola cab drivers for allegedly conning several passengers by manipulating the mobile application to add more kilometres to the destination, thereby increasing the fare. The police found that at least 40 cab drivers had taken advantage of a glitch in an outdated version of the app to con customers. An Ola spokesperson refused to comment on the issue.

How did the Ola drivers manage to manipulate the system?

Acharya, who was earlier a cab driver but has recently given up driving, told the police he found the glitch in the old Ola app.

On the driver interface of the app, the cab would appear on a bridge in the GPS map even if in reality it was below the bridge. So, whenever the cab was going under a long overpass, bridge or flyover, the drivers would switch off the app. Once they had crossed the bridge and taken either a left or right off the road, they would switch on the app again. The map that earlier thought the vehicle was on the bridge, would then look for a route that would connect the bridge to the current location of the cab. The re-routed course would be longer than the one the driver had taken.

For example, a cab driver travelling below the Eastern Freeway would switch off his app. As per the app, he is on the Freeway, an elevated road, while he is actually on the road below. He would drive for 2-3 kilometres with the app off, reach Govandi and switch on the app again. The app, which assumed the cab was above the freeway, would consider the route from above the freeway to Govandi which would entail going all the way back to Wadala, thus adding around 10 kilometres to the trip. In reality however, the cab would have covered a distance of just 2 km.

The drivers operated on the Mumbai airport to Panvel route and during one trip, they would stop at three or four locations below the bridge thus adding several kilometres to the trip.

https://indianexpress.com/article/ex...omers-7064946/

[itwasntme]

Amazing ingenuity! Only a Mumbaikar paying close attention or with knowledge of the route/usual fare or a non-resident proactively assessing the route on Google Maps will catch them out.

If they applied 50% of this to more ethical productive pursuits, they wouldn't be driving cabs for their entire lifetime.

[Raghu M]

I find it surprising at ways people find to beat these systems. Of course, there is always a turn around for everything. What I find hard to believe is, why would someone like Ola or Uber be quite when a driver switches off the app? Isn't that supposed to sound an alarm and they contact the driver immediately? It's a basic feature that is supposed to be part of the security. The driver could do anything with the passenger as he is not being monitored. What if the passenger's mobile dies and then there is no means to track the trip at all. I don't blame the drivers here, Ola just created an app with a big hole in it. First the security, then having no idea what a trip distance would be. For example, it could be 12 kms standard but if a driver is adding around 18 kms for the same route, there should be a technique to ascertain why the trip distance increased.

[blackwasp]

Both the Ola and Uber apps are not without flaws. There have been many instances of GPS acting up especially on the Vashi creek bridge, some areas of Gorai and Kalyan / Dombivali roads. That said, Uber has always been prompt in verifying the claim and giving the right fare to the drivers.

Few drivers in Ola discovered that the same could be done deliberately but the bad news was that the fare was reflected on the passengers app too. So it was a no-brainer that there was some error in the fare calculation.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by Raghu M

What I find hard to believe is, why would someone like Ola or Uber be quiet when a driver switches off the app? Isn't that supposed to sound an alarm and they contact the driver immediately? It's a basic feature that is supposed to be part of the security.

There are areas where the GPS signal is lost. So the app is built to handle signal losses for short periods of time. And that is where the genius of the hack is. As long as the GPS signal is restored within the acceptable tolerance, the app doesn't raise any alarm. And if a large number of cabbies switch off the location at the same point, any machine learning system might also assume that area has weak GPS reception and could miss identifying the breach.

[srini1785]

Interesting. What with all the AI going into making an app and good old human ingenuity getting the better of it.

What may have happened is that one driver may have accidently found out about the glitch and after testing it 2-3 times with excellent results , may have spread the news for the benefit of his brethren.

An Ola spokesperson refused to comment on the issue

Why should they? Extra miles is money for them too right?

[Entsurgeon]

Originally Posted by srini1785

...
Why should they? Extra miles is money for them too right?

And thats why, higher ups from the company should be booked as well. High time corporates took us for a ride. I found it outragous that the company representative refused to comment on the matter.

[vigsom]

I wasn't surprised at reading this. While I've been a huge fan of the honesty of Mumbai black and yellow cab drivers, I have have had my share of "unforgettable" experiences with ingenious drivers too. All these have been between 1991 and 2012, when cabs didn't have digital meters.

1. MH02R4640 - after seeing someone off, I took this cab at the departure lane of Terminal 2A of the then Sahar Intnl. Airport to go to Borivali. The meter was clicked down and when I reached Borivali, the driver looked at a fare card and showed me a fare that was approx 100 bucks over the actual fare. The meter card was faulty. I challenged him stating that Sahar to Cuffe Parade at 19 odd units would cost me only 270 bucks then and he knew his game was up. I paid him the right fare and left. I saw the same cab at Andheri Station some six months later and warned the passenger not to use the cab.

2. Swapping 100 rupee notes with 10s in the wee hours of the morning was a common trick played by most cabbies operating at Dadar Terminus (Western and Central). The user wouldn't even know until he/she checked the wallet after reaching home. Such cabs would invariably have a "Stepney" (accomplice) in the front with the driver.

3. Starting the meter at a higher start unit instead of 1.00. The user wouldn't notice this (since the meter would be covered with a translucent waterproof cover) until the destination and would end up paying approx. 100 rupees extra.

Let us accept it - drivers resort to such tactics because they are forced to, given irrational fares and the high costs of living. A cab ride even today from, say, Mumbai Central to Grand Central Parel costs approx.100 bucks. How can a driver afford his living with such fares?

[rohan_iitr]

An OLA driver in Bangalore once tried this trick on me, but he switched off the app when the vehicle was on top of the BETL expressway.

I was not aware of this trick, so I thought may be he is switching off the app to avoid over speeding warning.

But when the fare was calculated at the end of the trip, I ended up paying lesser than the initial estimate.

Rohan

[bongSENse]

Trust people in our country to come up with all sorts of tricks to find a way to beat the system! But I'll give it to these drivers who have found a smooth way of duping people rather than resorting to the more blatant ways of cheating customers.

I was also taken for a ride (literally) by an Ola cabbie once when I had visited Bangalore for the first time in 2017. Took a late flight from CCU and landed in Bangalore at around 1:30 AM. Since I was traveling light, decided to avail an Ola Mini to reach my destination at Neeladri Nagar, Electronic City. When the cab arrived, the driver started asking directions in Kannada when I told him to look up the same in the app itself. I suppose at this point, he sensed my naivety and understood that I am not a resident in this city and that he has a royal opportunity to con me (which he did ). So when we approached the toll right before entering the city, he looks back and asks me to pay the toll charges in cash. Now, I was totally unaware that toll charges are contained in the fare, since we do not have any intra-city tolls in Kolkata and therefore, I had no idea on the payment of toll charges. So I ended up paying the toll tax of ~80 bucks in cash. First Con: Check! Then, as we were on our way, the roads seemed empty and G Maps showed a blue line all throughout, corroborating the same. Then all of a sudden, this guy swerves from the designated route and takes a different route (which looked longer to me). When I asked him about this, he replies, "Sir, this main route will be full of traffic jams now (mind you, it was past 2 AM already), so I am taking this alternate route." A couple of kms into this route, I start noticing very few vehicles and the poor road condition in addition to being faintly illuminated. By then, I caught up with my sixth sense and could tell that I was being majestically screwed with. Second Con: Check! Anyway, I held onto my temper because it was getting very late and I did not want to engage in a verbal spat at 3 AM; so I kept mum. After I reached my destination, the fare was noticeably higher by ~200 bucks as expected. Paid the same using PayTM, unloaded my bags, and immediately raised a dispute in the Ola app citing the extra toll charge, longer route, and the whole episode of shenanigans by the driver. I was lucky that I was refunded the entire extra amount instantly by Ola.

Long story short, these guys have an innate tendency to dupe customers as well as their employers who are providing them with a decent means of livelihood. I have an acquaintance who operates a fleet of 4 cars and he has to keep a strict vigil on his drivers at all times. Several antics by such drivers in the past have made it almost an SOP for him to change drivers every 2-3 months to keep such unscrupulous activities at bay.

[dakshin.bhasker]

This reminds me of my time in the US. I was interning in a hotel in Nashville, TN for 9 months or so. I decided against purchasing a car for such a short period
(a wrong decision, in hindsight). I used Uber and Lyft as my basic means of transportation. Both the apps had an option along the lines of "Driver took longer route than expected" or "Fare higher than normal". Whenever I selected it, I'm assuming it would analyse my start and end location and workout the normal fare. If my current fare deviated from it, it would literally instantly refund my money. Again, customer service in the US is definitely much superior to ours as I have seen similar options in Ola too but its more like a feedback and they never really get back to you.

[MMV]

Couple of weeks back, even I found Uber app showing car on bridge, when it was actually below (the driver didn't turn-off the app though, maybe since I was watching). In fact in general I had found Uber to be more accurate.

The problem with Ola offlate has been unruly drivers, they ask for location and even if you dont disclose they cancel assuming its a short trip. In Uber this problem is less severe in my experience

[logicalidiot]

Duping customers and taking them for a ride has been in practice in the country for many years. I'm not generalizing all cab/auto drivers as such but there are a lot of them still plying out on the roads making a fool of us.

I do not want to get on to why they are doing it or what makes them do these unethical practices. But what I generally do when I get onto a cab is to open GMaps on my phone and see the actual distance/route being shown. This way I'd know if he is taking the longer route or if there is something amiss in the distance travelled at the end of the trip. There are times where the cab driver asks which route to take and I'd answer confidently because I would have my Maps open. This way he would be of the assumption that I'm from the same city and I know the roads well.

[airbus]

Originally Posted by Entsurgeon

And thats why, higher ups from the company should be booked as well. High time corporates took us for a ride. I found it outragous that the company representative refused to comment on the matter.

It should not be tough for these aggregators to track what drivers are doing. Example if some drivers App is regularly getting disconnected in an area when so many others are still connected, compare passenger App information etc. Passengers will go from point A to B, there may not be huge variations even if different routes are taken.

[Entsurgeon]

Originally Posted by airbus

It should not be tough for these aggregators to track what drivers are doing. Example if some drivers App is regularly getting disconnected in an area when so many others are still connected, compare passenger App information etc. Passengers will go from point A to B, there may not be huge variations even if different routes are taken.

Thats proactive. But even if the cabbies pulled it off, the company higher ups should take an action on defaulters. Here they just dodged the issue it seems.