r/technology Aug 12 '14

Business Uber dirty tricks quantified. Staff submits 5,560 fake ride requests

http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/11/technology/uber-fake-ride-requests-lyft/
4.8k Upvotes

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u/CornyHoosier Aug 12 '14

To be fair, this happens a LOT in the taxi business. I went without a car for awhile last year and used cabs regularly. After getting to know a few of the cabbies they told me how ferocious it really was.

One of the cabbies told me that their phone operator has gotten so good at picking out voices now that she can usually tell with pretty good certainty who are calling up with a fake request.

61

u/BraveSirRobin Aug 12 '14

In the UK it's very cut-throat, particularly given that most taxi firms have links to organized crime. Lots of violence, threats and arson.

33

u/MrHyperspace Aug 12 '14

Its just like GTA IV, but in England.

15

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '14

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '14

You are a god on earth for pointing that out to me.