A big laziness to cook added to a big desire for a burger multiplied by rotten weather inevitably ends in ordering on Uber Eats or Deliveroo. And then let’s be crazy, let’s try this new restaurant whose photos displayed on the app make you drool like a Bernese mountain dog. Since the reviews are glowing, we drop twenty bucks for a menu without suspecting anything before standing at the window to watch for the delivery man. Who will never arrive, because we have just been scammed by a “fake restaurant”.
However, there are some testimonies from victims on social networks or on forums, such as that of Meli, posted in May 2023 on My-complaint. “I placed an order on May 1st at 8:24 p.m. at ”Le Tabac-Graille 78”. I was debited even though this order was never delivered to me,” she laments. Meli reported the problem to Deliveroo’s customer service, but the fake restaurant had taken the lead and assured the platform that the delivery had been made. She will never see her 12.55 euros again.
“These cases of fraud are extremely marginal”
This same pseudo-restaurant claimed other victims before disappearing. On XJay warns Deliveroo users after placing an order for 21 euros that he never smelled. “Beware of this fake restaurant!!!”, he warns, adding that Deliveroo “refuses to refund your order that was never delivered”. Still on X, another Internet user got scammed by a “Sushi bar” listed on Uber Eats in Pavillons-sous-Bois, Seine-Saint-Denis. When his order didn’t arrive, he called and realized that the real restaurant was in Reims.
The scam therefore consists of registering fake restaurants on the platforms, sometimes inspired by existing establishments, sometimes completely imaginary. The scammer then collects the amount of the orders and ensures either that they have been delivered or that they have been cancelled by the customer in order to keep the money. The virtual restaurant remains on the applications for some time before disappearing on its own or being removed by the platform.
HAS 20 MinutesUber Eats confirms the existence of this scam but assures that “these cases of fraud are extremely marginal”. The platform adds that this scam is “of low magnitude since the restaurant not delivering the order is immediately reported by the customer”.
Forged documents or identity theft
Still on the Uber Eats side, Deliveroo did not respond to our requests, we explain that the reports lead to “verifications”. However, it does not seem so easy to fraudulently register as a restaurateur on these platforms, which require certain administrative guarantees: “SIRET and VAT number as well as the KBIS, the RIB and the identity document”, lists Uber Eats. So many documents that are relatively easy to falsify, especially when the scammers usurp the identity of a real restaurant. In the approval process, Uber Eats ensures that it contacts the restaurant or consults the reviews on sites like TripAdvisor or Google.
If the meal is not delivered, can victims hope to get their money back? Uber Eats promises that “customers who are victims of fraud are reimbursed the amount of the order”. However, for the cases mentioned above, this seemed complicated, as the latter claimed to have never won their case. Scammed in 2022 by an imaginary “Big Burger’s” in Versaillesa journalist from Actu Yvelines had his complaint on the Uber Eats app rejected. He had nevertheless been “fully reimbursed” after contacting Uber France on X.