Bengaluru man shares story of escaping Rapido 'cab scam'. Here's how he did it

With scams by auto drivers and cabbies on the rise, this user shares his little victory against them.

Scams by auto drivers and cabbies in Bengaluru seem to have become a common occurrence in the city. From using fake fare screenshots and taking longer routes to selling sob stories to defraud innocent sympathisers, many of them have occurred enough times for citizens to understand their modus operandi.

It was something similar that Redditor 'Sharp-Celery-6745' was facing, with a Rapido cab driver trying to charge double the actual fare.

Narrating his incident in a post titled 'Cab Scam Alert: My Tactical Escape' on the r/bangalore subreddit, the user wrote, "Booked a Rapido cab from Central College to Hoodi. Fare shown: ₹385. The driver had a 2.6 rating (red flag), but it was raining, and he was nearby, so I took the ride."

"At the drop, the driver claimed the fare was ₹600, showing a screenshot from - what I understood after 60 seconds - a previous ride. My app showed the trip to be still in progress, and there were no route deviations or stops. I understood his scam but chose not to confront him," he continued.

The driver had planned far enough ahead to switch accounts on Rapido in order to show the passenger that his ride history is empty, thereby saying that there is a server issue, but the fare is being shown correctly.

"He gave excuses like 'server takes time to update' and suggested checking my email, gambling on me not doing so. No end-trip email arrived. He asked me to call Rapido, but they only had an SOS option since the trip was technically still ongoing," the user said.

The user kept playing along with the driver, stating that he'll wait as long as needed to look at the actual fare, even if its Rs 1,000.

"Finally, I said I’d pay Rs 385 now and GPay the rest once the app updated. He began getting rowdy and insisted he needed the full amount immediately for his subscription renewal, but I sympathised, cursed the 'server issue,' and assured him I'd pay the rest later—after all, he knew my address," he wrote on Reddit.

Realising his scam wasn't working, the driver accepted the fee. Moments later the user's app updated with the same fare he had paid- Rs 385.

"Low-key proud of how I handled the situation. If I’d been rushing to work, or had a flight, I wouldn’t have had time for this, but I’m happy I managed to de-escalate gracefully without directly confronting his scam. Small victory," the user said at the end of his post.

Reacting to the story, some users celebrated his victory, with one saying, "BIG victory. Not a small one. Isn't this the lesson of non-violence? Don't give in to a bully, but don't get violent."

Another said, "a nice way to handle the situation OP" (Original Poster).

User Potential-Jello3590 shared their own story of facing such scams, "auto driver just asked for 400 (original was 350) so I showed him the app is saying 350, I’m paying 350 only. What I failed to notice was that he never ended the trip. At that point I had paid 350 and he left so did I. An hour later I got a notification saying 'please pay the driver 510' So I went ahead and contacted support and it seems using gps they realised that I wasn’t on the extra part? I wasn’t charged anything so all good."

Others shared other ways to escape such scams. " Just tick option of paying online," one said, referring to the in-app option that allows users to pay through the platform instead of paying the drivers directly.

Another said, "If I were you, I'd have paid whatever amount he asked for and requested a refund from Rapido later stating the driver demanded extra cash. Done this several times because it's not worth arguing/escalating the situation with these idiots."