For gig workers already struggling, things have gotten harder as they now have to be on the lookout for certain possible phishing scams coming from some malicious actors that could pretend to represent the said company. This particular phishing scam would then clear out the victim's accounts.
Postmates divers scammed
A report made by the Markup that was just published this week describes the said phishing scams, which the particular states have affected hundreds of different Postmates drivers. The scam works by bad actors placing an order in order for them to talk to the driver. They then pretend to be a Postmates employee while conning the driver to give up their passwords and logins.
Once the scammer is able to log in, they then change the whole payment information of the account and proceed to drain it. Since Postmates deposits the driver's earnings on Monday, most of the scams reportedly happen on the weekend when certain drivers already have most of their earnings just waiting to be deposited.
Postmates has over 500,000 members
Uber previously acquired Postmates sometime in December 2020, and the delivery service reportedly has over 500,000 fleet members. According to Meghan Casserly, the head of delivery communications for both Postmates and Uber declined to reveal how many drivers were affected by the said phishing scams.
Casserly just noted that Postmates sends out certain "periodic reminders" about the certain fraudulent activity and works to safeguard the driver's earnings. Casserly said that although incidents like those aren't unique to both Postmates and Uber, they still take all reports regarding fraudulent activity quite seriously.
Postmates response to the phishing scam
She also noted that Postmates has a certain support page that includes a number of pretty generic warnings regarding phishing scams. The page is reportedly titled "How can I keep my account safe?" Casserly also stated that Postmates does not really have prevention measures in place like a two-factor authentication as well as blocking payouts if there is any particular indication of fraud. The Markup noted that the drivers who have shared their experience regarding the scam online noted that they were not able to get back the stolen earnings.
The story by Gizmodo notes that Casserly told the outlet that Postmates still has a process to allow certain drivers who are the verified victims of the particular scam to request reimbursements. Gizmodo reportedly tried to reach out to Uber and Postmates to ask whether the said companies had plans to take maybe additional action in order to stop the couriers from falling prey to the said phishing scams in the future. There was no response when the article was written, but the source noted that they will follow up if they hear from Postmates.
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This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Urian Buenconsejo
