Bolt user taken for a ride

[Jan]

Bolt driver hijacks user's account — books trips and rates himself five stars

Bolt charged a MyBroadband reader for trips he didn't take, and on investigating the issue, we noticed that seven of the eight fraudulent trips featured the same driver.

The eight fraudulent trips totalled R2,055, of which R1,436 were with the same driver.

 

[skimread]

Question is how do they get the account details?

A camera in the car to check the password when the user logs in to their account?

 

[Tpex]

I uninstalled the app months back, with the theft of personal items, the constant GBV horror stories and the unwillingness of Bolt itself to take responsibility, it's really not worth saving the few extra rand.
This story doesn't even surprise me, the company has reputation of harboring criminal elements.

 

[The_Ogre]

I need to scrutinise my account because I make extensive use of Uber and Bolt.

I use both based on various factors, mainly who will get tome first and who's cheaper.

This experience of the forumite makes me think of stopping using Bolt.

 

[rvZA]

Bolt user taken for a ride​

Isn't that what should happen to a bolt use?

 

[_TrXtR_]

So the guy committed fraud and got off?

 

[Syphonx]

Question is how do they get the account details?

A camera in the car to check the password when the user logs in to their account?

But the user would already be logged in as they have ordered the ride.

I think this is from a password leak elsewhere and the idiot involved used the same password for multiple sites. Scammer found out they use Bolt and signed up as a driver, then set up fake trips to get paid.

 

[3rdMillennium]

Mid July I was approached by Bolt Business to join their programme. It seemed like a good deal at the time, and would allow me to let others ride on my profile when I allocated them that opportunity, similar to what I've done with Uber. Within 4 days, a driver took two trips using my account, the first amounting to nearly R500 in total... sadly for him my business account didn't have funds at the time for that payment, let alone a second attempted trip. Multiple emails to their Business side and Support too saw my account suspended, and then several attempts to debit my account (each failed attempt a declined fee charged by my bank) until Hey Presto!, I'd enough in and they deducted the ride...
Logic dictates either my phone was hacked - less likely; or someone on the inside had access and set themselves up for some schweet ridez....
Having laid a criminal case of fraud (not holding my breath) I won't see that money back, but Bolt won't ever see my business again.

 

[chrisc]

There is a BOLT scam going on at our local BP petrol station

How it works:

You buy petrol and wish to pay via card
The attendant taps or inserts the card and invites you to enter your PIN
The PIN does not work (the keys pressed do not translate into characters)
The attendant "goes to fetch" another POS machine. He may or may not give you back the card, in a test case I kept the card
The second POS machine works
About 60-90 mins later, there is a lot of activity on this card account

It can be:

1) - Multiple "payments" of R350 each sent to BOLT/ZA. A neighbour had 11 x R350 payments in 10 mins
2) - Mutiple "tap to pay" transactions of R500. Merchant BOLT/ZA. Another person had 18 payments in under 10 mins

ABSA Bank said that if a tap to pay transaction is registered, another tap to pay transaction cannot be completed in under 10 mins

When shown the statement, printed at ABSA showing R500 x 18 at 15h31 to 15h40 on Sunday 7th August, the first reaction of ABSA's fraud dept was that this was a fake statement. So after an argument and initial refusals, the fraud dept lady brought in a "waste clerk" who printed the same statement from a terminal in the office. She said this was a unique occurrance and said there must be a mistake, ABSA's systems guarded against this . They take this seriously, they said (oh yes, we could see the effort being made).

So we asked her to arrange to replace this money now debited from the account if it was in fact truly impossible to have taken place. The balanced prior to the 18 payments was R22636,55 and after, was R13636,55. In other words R9000 was withdrawn

No response. They are "investigating". When pushed, she threatened to call security who would ask us to leave, as we were "being ridiculous"

The BP Petrol station manager flatly refuses to engage with this so-called fraud

BP were contacted and expressed surprise, they had never heard of this. They too will investigate

The SAPS were a complete waste of time and effort. We were referred to a Commercial Crimes Dept. The 012 (Pretoria) number supplied does not answer or is out of order