Tens of thousands of meals ordered, immediately refunded: Uber Eats scammed of more than 2 million euros

They face up to ten years in prison and a fine of one million euros. Two men in their twenties, suspected of having hacked the Uber Eats delivery platform via encrypted Telegram messaging for an amount estimated at more than 2 million euros, were arrested on Tuesday and indicted on Thursday.

The scam started on the encrypted Telegram messaging service, via a group with well-established mechanics. Scammers offered customers half-price orders from Uber Eats. Concretely, the customer pays the criminal, who then orders from the platform. The delivery is made, but the scammers are reimbursed under the pretext that the food never arrived. In other words, they receive the platform's money and that of the customers. “The process, for small amounts, allows you to go under the radar of large companies. The problem is that the multiplication of these fraudulent orders will cause quite significant damage to society,” explains in the report at the top of this article squadron leader Leprêtre, deputy commander of the Paris research section (SR).

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In total, the scam cost the delivery platform 2.5 million euros in less than two years thanks to 137,000 fraudulent accounts. The thugs had developed an algorithm that made this system work automatically. Contacted, Uber Eats confirms having filed a complaint and is strengthening its security. “Today, our teams are working on new features to prevent fraud even more effectively.”

With each refund, the scammers' money was placed in cryptocurrency. A method favored by criminals to hide traces. “It allows you to transfer money relatively anonymously, in a large number of cases”explains cybercrime expert Renaud Feil.