As if the concert workers hadn’t already had enough hard, now they have to be looking for possible phishing scams from malicious actors who claim to represent their company.
An in-depth report by mark published this week describes phishing scams, about which states have affected hundreds of Postmates drivers. Scams usually work like this: bad actors place an order to be able to talk to the driver, call the driver who pretends to be employees of colleagues and then persuade drivers to give up their login details and passwords.
Once the scammers log in, they change the payment information in the account and empty it. Because Postmates generally deposit drivers’ income on Mondays, scams tend to occur on weekends, when drivers have the most earnings waiting to be deposited.
It was postmates acquired by Uber in December last year. The delivery service has more than 500,000 members of the fleet.
Meghan Casserly, head of delivery communications for Uber and Postmates, declined to tell Markup how many Postmates drivers were affected by the phishing scams. Casserly told reporters that Postmates sends “regular reminders” about fraudulent work and works to protect drivers’ earnings.
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“While such incidents are not unique to Uber or Postmates, we take all reports of fraudulent activity very seriously,” Casserly said.
She also said that Postmates has one help page which includes some pretty generic warnings about phishing scams. Honestly, the page is titled “How can I keep my account safe?” Although the intention is probably good, it doesn’t do a good job of communicating that this is a danger that drivers face now and that they should be aware of it.
In addition, Casserly said Postmates has preventative measures, such as two-factor authentication and blocking of payments, if there are indications of fraud. Markup noted that drivers who shared their experiences with online scams said they could not recover their stolen earnings. Casserly told the media that Postmates has a lawsuit that allows drivers who are verified victims of a scam to seek reimbursement.
However, she did not tell the press how many workers managed to recover their earnings in this way.
Gizmodo has contacted Postmates and Uber to ask if the companies intend to take any further action to prevent couriers from falling prey to these phishing scams in the future. We will make sure we update this blog if we hear.
If you are a driver of fellow postmen, how can you avoid being deceived by contemptuous people? Here are some things you should know about Casserly and Postmates own guidance:
- Your colleagues will never tell you that there are suspicious changes to your password or bank account information by phone. It will always be done through its automatic monitoring systems.
- Colleagues will never ask you for your account login information, including your username, password, or a code sent to your phone.
- Do not provide login information even if the person you are talking to claims to be a Postmates employee.
- If you receive a phone call or text requesting your login information, do not provide any of the requested information and do not click on any of the links in the text. Contact your postal colleagues immediately so they can investigate the incident.
While it is important for concert workers to be vigilant and cautious, it is also important for companies to take steps to protect their workers. This means going beyond the fact statement or linking to generic support pages.