Uber driver scammed of earnings by caller claiming to be corporate: 'I was caught off guard'

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A woman is sending a warning for Uber drivers after a scheme, that's targeting drivers, duped her out of all the money she earned on Jan. 23.

It all started with a canceled ride and was followed by a phone call.

"It's an excellent opportunity for people, like myself, who are burnt out on the corporate scene," said the driver, who asked to remain unidentified.

Over the weekend, she picked up a call instead of a passenger. The call was from someone who claimed to work for Uber and said they received a complaint.

"One of your riders reported that your profile does not match your face, and it appears that you're allowing someone else to use your app to drive for Uber," she recalled, explaining what she was told.

From there, the scammer convinced the driver that he needed access to her app to straighten things out.

"It didn't really make any sense, but I guess I was a bit nervous and caught off guard," she said. "He really did seem to know what he was talking about."

The woman said she shared information that allowed the scammer to log in to her driver account and then drain it.

"Once I reset my password, I saw that my earnings from that day had been cashed out and sent to another bank card," she said.

Uber said she fell for an imposter scam and sent the following statement regarding the scheme:

"Riders and drivers should never share personal account information, such as passwords, or verification codes, with anyone. We take the security of users' accounts very seriously, and if users believe they have been scammed, we encourage them to report it to us so we can investigate and take action."

"It's just unfortunate you have scammers out there preying on earnest, hard-working people. I just want to expose that," the driver said.

The driver will be eligible for a refund of the stolen money. Meanwhile, Uber is investigating what happened to their employee, said the company.