# "Fake" Uber and Lyft drivers??? How is this possible?



## Rideshare Safety People (Sep 16, 2016)

Ok people... I'm trying to figure out how are people getting into the car with "fake" Uber or Lyft drivers? The app clearly shows the picture of the person and the their license plate. Are people driving the car and signing in under an active driver's account or what? I'm reading articles on Google Alerts and in the news about people getting into cars with "fake" drivers. How is this even possible if they are looking at the license plate and pic of the driver?


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## I_Like_Spam (May 10, 2015)

A lot of passengers don't look at license plates or the driver that close. An Uber sticker on the windshield is usually enough. Remember a lot of these rides happen at night, and you can't see as well, especially with the large number of people with particularly poor night vision.


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## UberXTampa (Nov 20, 2014)

An UberX driver is nobody. Some pax don't even look at our face. Many don't even know car make/models. An intersection of these 2 makes news stories like this.


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## ddelro219 (Aug 11, 2016)

i havce a silver toyota camry. the most common sedan on the road and the most common color (i think, if not silver is still pretty damn common) on the road. so yeah,quite often i'll see another silver toyota camry before i can count 10 missippi's. easy to mistake my car for another. 

i saw firsthand a rider open the door to another silver camry a few cars ahead of me with me on the phone with him. rider just about yelling at me, "i am standing right in front of your car. what do you mean you're down the sidewalk?" i can imagine the face of the driver of that camry wondering why there's a strange guy yelling on the phone getting into my car. 

some people just overlook the details.


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## Billys Bones (Oct 2, 2016)

I'm an old man yet driving through LA girls sometimes just run to my car whether the app is on or not.


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## I_Like_Spam (May 10, 2015)

ddelro219 said:


> some people just overlook the details.


I opened the door and almost got into a white Buick that was just like mine in front of Macy's a few weeks ago. These kinds of things happen


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## steveK2016 (Jul 31, 2016)

Mix in some alcohol and anxiousness to leave and you get mistakes often. I have tinted windows so it doesn't help. I've already picked up my pax at bar row and I'd have drunk people still trying to get into my car.


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## observer (Dec 11, 2014)

Billys Bones said:


> I'm an old man yet driving through LA girls sometimes just run to my car whether the app is on or not.


I've had this happen as well and I'm not even a TNC driver. I have no trade dress or sticker of any kind at all on windshield.


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## OCBeachgirl (Sep 16, 2016)

This has been bothering for several weeks. Today, while offline, I come across this white Honda with no License Plates and an Uber and Lyft decal in the back window. After taking this pic, I went in front of him and no front plate either. Yes, there was a Passenger in the car. What to do?????


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## shiftydrake (Dec 12, 2015)

OCBeachgirl said:


> This has been bothering for several weeks. Today, while offline, I come across this white Honda with no License Plates and an Uber and Lyft decal in the back window. After taking this pic, I went in front of him and no front plate either. Yes, there was a Passenger in the car. What to do?????


Nothing


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## terrifiedanimal (Jun 22, 2016)

OCBeachgirl said:


> This has been bothering for several weeks. Today, while offline, I come across this white Honda with no License Plates and an Uber and Lyft decal in the back window. After taking this pic, I went in front of him and no front plate either. Yes, there was a Passenger in the car. What to do?????


In California, it's customary to drive your brand new car around without plates, since it takes some time for your new plates to arrive. Perfectly legal. I've seen people go for many months sporting the placeholder dealer placards, out of vanity more than anything else. It took six weeks for my plates to arrive, so I drove with the Mercedes dealer name placard in my car's front and back license plate frames. Had a couple of passengers freak out over the fact that I had no plates on the car. They confirmed to me, my assumption that they were out-of-staters who were unaware of how we do it here.

I did have some apprehensions crossing the Golden Gate bridge, which has no toll booths and relies upon license plate scanners. I didn't get my usual toll bill in the mail, so I guess the bridge just writes off those unlicensed vehicle tolls.


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

OCBeachgirl said:


> This has been bothering for several weeks. Today, while offline, I come across this white Honda with no License Plates and an Uber and Lyft decal in the back window. After taking this pic, I went in front of him and no front plate either. Yes, there was a Passenger in the car. What to do?????


Fake ubers for FAKE Riders !


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## observer (Dec 11, 2014)

terrifiedanimal said:


> In California, it's customary to drive your brand new car around without plates, since it takes some time for your new plates to arrive. Perfectly legal. I've seen people go for many months sporting the placeholder dealer placards, out of vanity more than anything else. It took six weeks for my plates to arrive, so I drove with the Mercedes dealer name placard in my car's front and back license plate frames. Had a couple of passengers freak out over the fact that I had no plates on the car. They confirmed to me, my assumption that they were out-of-staters who were unaware of how we do it here.
> 
> I did have some apprehensions crossing the Golden Gate bridge, which has no toll booths and relies upon license plate scanners. I didn't get my usual toll bill in the mail, so I guess the bridge just writes off those unlicensed vehicle tolls.


"Paper plates" will probably be made illegal or changed somehow to make them traceable to the car soon. A lot of people buy them and put them on cars to avoid paying registration fees. They are commonly sold outside police impound auto auctions.


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## I_Like_Spam (May 10, 2015)

observer said:


> "Paper plates" will probably be made illegal or changed somehow to make them traceable to the car soon. A lot of people buy them and put them on cars to avoid paying registration fees. They are commonly sold outside police impound auto auctions.


Really? I'm sure that some people abuse the paper plates, but is it really a lot?

Of course, California can adopt the Pennsylvania system, where the plate goes with the driver. Buy a new car and you keep your old plate.


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## CrazyT (Jul 2, 2016)

Why would people try to be fake drivers? the majority of the pax aren't carrying money so they wont be able to pay for the ride.


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## I_Like_Spam (May 10, 2015)

CrazyT said:


> Why would people try to be fake drivers? the majority of the pax aren't carrying money so they wont be able to pay for the ride.


Maybe they tell people they are having technical problems and will have to pay cash, or have their own square reader for credit cards?


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## Red Leader (Sep 4, 2016)

observer said:


> "Paper plates" will probably be made illegal or changed somehow to make them traceable to the car soon. A lot of people buy them and put them on cars to avoid paying registration fees. They are commonly sold outside police impound auto auctions.


Here is what the state is wanting to go to.....

Right now you have TRIP stickers.....temporary registration in progress. Front lower right corner of the windshield.

Now what they want to do is issue paper plates at the time of sale to be placed in the plate frame. Nth is is because law enforcement can't tell from a passive run of the vehicle is stolen or not. This system is supposed to solve that.

I once bought a truck and drove with the ever fading dealer placard in the plate frames for about 18 months. Nehemiah the plates came, about 3 weeks after I bought the truck, I tossed them in the back seat and waited just to see how long before I was stopped.

I never was. I finally put them on because I got tired of all the nagging.


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## Red Leader (Sep 4, 2016)

I_Like_Spam said:


> Maybe they tell people they are having technical problems and will have to pay cash, or have their own square reader for credit cards?


Why would anyone pay them?


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## I_Like_Spam (May 10, 2015)

Red Leader said:


> Why would anyone pay them?


To get from where they are, to where they want to be.

The same reason passengers pay anyone.


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## Red Leader (Sep 4, 2016)

I_Like_Spam said:


> To get from where they are, to where they want to be.
> 
> The same reason passengers pay anyone.


So....you are using a cashless system, and someone asks you to pay cash or use a credit card?

Yea....I'd certainly do that. Nothing sketchy about it at all.


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## I_Like_Spam (May 10, 2015)

Red Leader said:


> So....you are using a cashless system, and someone asks you to pay cash or use a credit card?
> 
> Yea....I'd certainly do that. Nothing sketchy about it at all.


If there was a reasonable explanation, like there was technical problems with the computer system and the driver looked sane, I'd do it.


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## observer (Dec 11, 2014)

I_Like_Spam said:


> Really? I'm sure that some people abuse the paper plates, but is it really a lot?
> 
> Of course, California can adopt the Pennsylvania system, where the plate goes with the driver. Buy a new car and you keep your old plate.


I haven't been to a police impound auction in about a year. But it has been very common for years to have people, outside the auctions, that sell paper plates, batteries, jumper cables, tires etc.

In CA by law any car sold at a police auction must have its license plates removed before being sold to the public. So people get around this by attaching paper "dealer" plates.

Sometimes cars are sold two or three times before they are registered or impounded again.


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## observer (Dec 11, 2014)

Red Leader said:


> Here is what the state is wanting to go to.....
> 
> Right now you have TRIP stickers.....temporary registration in progress. Front lower right corner of the windshield.
> 
> ...


Yea, those temporary regs (just a paper, not a sticker) are attached by the dealer. They are good for 90 days. I just removed mine this week from my car that I bought a few months ago too.

The paper "plates" i've seen are just basically the dealerships name, no numbers or anything to trace cars.

A couple months ago I actually saw a plate on a new Range Rover that looked legit, month sticker in top left, year sticker in top right and license sequence in middle. The middle sequence was just slightly thicker than I thought it should be, upon closer inspection, I realized it was a paper plate.


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## Red Leader (Sep 4, 2016)

observer said:


> Yea, those temporary regs (just a paper, not a sticker) are attached by the dealer. They are good for 90 days. I just removed mine this week from my car that I bought a few months ago too.
> 
> The paper "plates" i've seen are just basically the dealerships name, no numbers or anything to trace cars.
> 
> A couple months ago I actually saw a plate on a new Range Rover that looked legit, month sticker in top left, year sticker in top right and license sequence in middle. The middle sequence was just slightly thicker than I thought it should be, upon closer inspection, I realized it was a paper plate.


Yup....that is the new go to.

Personally, all vehicles leaving the dealership should have legit plates. There is no reason they don't.


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## Poopy54 (Sep 6, 2016)

Red Leader said:


> Yup....that is the new go to.
> 
> Personally, all vehicles leaving the dealership should have legit plates. There is no reason they don't.


There is a reason....
Because the dealerships DMV personal need to send the paper work to DMV to get the plates processed for the new car, the "RS"(report of sale) has the new owners name address and the VIN of the car on it, it is good for 6 months. This is for new cars, in the state of Cal the plates follow the car if it is preowned, unless they had vanity or handicapped plates, then those will recieve new plates


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## Red Leader (Sep 4, 2016)

Poopy54 said:


> There is a reason....
> Because the dealerships DMV personal need to send the paper work to DMV to get the plates processed for the new car, the "RS"(report of sale) has the new owners name address and the VIN of the car on it, it is good for 6 months. This is for new cars, in the state of Cal the plates follow the car if it is preowned, unless they had vanity or handicapped plates, then those will recieve new plates


Everything you said is true. But guess what?

The dealership can issue you your permanent plates right here at the dealership. DMV has a program for that. My brother in laws dealership does this. It's not difficult.


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## CrazyT (Jul 2, 2016)

Red Leader said:


> Everything you said is true. But guess what?
> 
> The dealership can issue you your permanent plates right here at the dealership. DMV has a program for that. My brother in laws dealership does this. It's not difficult.


Maybe it varies by state. I know in Maryland my dealer put the paper plate on when I bought my Escape a couple of years ago, but when I bought my Prius they put a real plate on before I ever got in the car. They knew I drive uber thanks to the uber $750 discount that they added to the other Toyota discounts. The sales guy handed me the registration card and told me he got me actual plates so I didn't have to worry about coming back to pick them up. He said they just love uber drivers. Yeah with all the mikes I'm sure they're selling a lot of cars.


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## freddieman (Oct 24, 2016)

OCBeachgirl said:


> This has been bothering for several weeks. Today, while offline, I come across this white Honda with no License Plates and an Uber and Lyft decal in the back window. After taking this pic, I went in front of him and no front plate either. Yes, there was a Passenger in the car. What to do?????


new cars with new registration don't have plates. could have temp registration on the front window.


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## Red Leader (Sep 4, 2016)

CrazyT said:


> Maybe it varies by state. I know in Maryland my dealer put the paper plate on when I bought my Escape a couple of years ago, but when I bought my Prius they put a real plate on before I ever got in the car. They knew I drive uber thanks to the uber $750 discount that they added to the other Toyota discounts. The sales guy handed me the registration card and told me he got me actual plates so I didn't have to worry about coming back to pick them up. He said they just love uber drivers. Yeah with all the mikes I'm sure they're selling a lot of cars.


I'm only speaking for CA. We are thinking of adding a whole new system when in fact we could just simply complete the system with out it.

And it's pretty cool they did that for you. It's really how it should be.


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## Poopy54 (Sep 6, 2016)

Red Leader said:


> Everything you said is true. But guess what?
> 
> The dealership can issue you your permanent plates right here at the dealership. DMV has a program for that. My brother in laws dealership does this. It's not difficult.


Wow 25 years in the biz, and finally starting to devise a way to do that. Got tired of customers calling.....Where are my plates, I moved 2 weeks ago, but failed to let DMV know my new address etc etc. Must be the larger dealers finally setting up a way to better accommodate the customer, Or DMV finding a way to lighten their load.



CrazyT said:


> Maybe it varies by state. I know in Maryland my dealer put the paper plate on when I bought my Escape a couple of years ago, but when I bought my Prius they put a real plate on before I ever got in the car. They knew I drive uber thanks to the uber $750 discount that they added to the other Toyota discounts. The sales guy handed me the registration card and told me he got me actual plates so I didn't have to worry about coming back to pick them up. He said they just love uber drivers. Yeah with all the mikes I'm sure they're selling a lot of cars.


It does vary by state, I had customers surprised they could take the car that day, I guess some states, actually need to wait for plates to be issued to the car first, seems strange to me


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