In Marking is an alarming story about a series of phishing scams that target showmates for Postmates. Drivers are receiving calls from people who claim to be Postmates employees, who ask employees to provide their login details – usually under the guise of keeping a driver’s account current or avoiding allegations of fraud.
After scammers have obtained this information, they exchange the debit card information in the account – Postmates makes weekly deposits of a worker’s earnings, but instant transfers can also be requested – and then drain the balance of everything that is there. Marking spoke to many Postmates employees who were victims of this scam, and others are using Reddit and social media to alert their fellow drivers of phishing and social engineering attempts.
The unknown call usually arrives shortly after an order. (Placing an order allows perpetrators to easily contact the Postmates driver by phone.) Some scammers have even involved restaurants in their scheme.
Drivers say Postmates are not doing enough to alert them to the phishing threat, which only became more common during the COVID-19 pandemic. Scammers are taking advantage of how busy and hurried these workers tend to be, so drivers are asking for more protection in the app.
One suggestion is to automatically retain a driver account whenever deposit information is changed, just to allow some more time to prevent an employee’s money from being diverted. Another measure that could help would be a caller ID that clearly identifies when a call is coming from a Postmates customer account. Postmates has this account protection support page, but several drivers said Marking they had never seen it before.
Postmates says it has implemented two-factor authentication and can block withdrawals if fraud is suspected. But drivers who were hit by the scam say the company is difficult to reach, so they have little hope of recovering their lost earnings. The whole story in Marking it’s worth reading – and one more reason to tip well whenever you lean on the gigabyte economy.