Reports claimed that DoorDash drivers lost about $950,000 from a cybercriminal operation that included phishing, scamming, and social engineering tactics.
These DoorDash drivers are contractors who pick up food deliveries from restaurants and stores and deliver the products to the customers. Based on reports, David Smith, a 21-year-old male from Connecticut, has allegedly figured out a strategy to extract large sums of money from drivers through a scam. Researchers stated that the fraud emerged in 2020.
This report implies that the scammer was once an 18-year-old boy when he developed the scamming operation.
The scammer disguised himself as a DoorDash support to deceive the contractors.
According to investigations, the cybercriminal operation from the scammer would start by placing a fake DoorDash order to receive the driver’s details. Next, the scammer will collect the driver’s details and contact the driver by call and text as a DoorDash support.
The call would prompt the DoorDash drivers to provide their banking details or log in to a bogus portal if they bite the bait of the fake DoorDash support. Hence, the drivers could lose their funds and be unable to do their jobs.
Experts claimed that most incidents occurred during the pandemic; therefore, more drivers are affected by the scam. Furthermore, targeting drivers during the pandemic could have also impacted numerous users since many rely on food delivery services during quarantine.
There are about 1,750 transactions that ensured a steady flow of ill-gotten wealth for the individual who allegedly orchestrated the scam. Furthermore, variations of illegal activity emerged, eventually leading to the theft of banking details. In some incidents, investigations failed to identify the victims since theft reports remained stored in DoorDash’s systems.
The food delivery company, DoorDash, trained their drivers to spot scams and phishing attacks. However, this incident managed to sneak past their attention. Well-known cybercriminal groups would not attempt to target such small business organisations that rely on an honest workforce.
Unfortunately, an individual with malicious intent has executed a strategy compromising a small group of workers. Lastly, the man earned nearly a million dollars from a scam that exploits workers during the pandemic, which makes the operation more unforgivable.
