Four Ola drivers fleece lakhs from company using fake location app technology

A bunch of Ola drivers in Bengaluru have used a fake location app technology to fleece lakhs from the company. A police official on Thursday confirmed that as many as four Ola driver partners have been arrested for hoodwinking the startup and fleecing it of lakhs of rupees using a fake location app technology, a police official said on Thursday.

"Central Crime Branch (CCB) detected a cheating case by the Ola drivers who cheated the startup of lakhs of rupees," Deputy Commissioner of Police Kuldeep Jain told IANS. The arrested people are Ravi, Manu, Satish and Nagesh.

Jain explained that the quartet was booking false or fake Ola cab trips using the counterfeit location technology so that they can earn commission from the startup.

The drivers downloaded Mock Locations (fake GPS path) app to trick the app that they drove customers in reality using false map locations. The app is available on Google Play Store and allows a person to generate fake phone location information.

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"Drivers use mock location app, show that they have driven the Ola cab by showing false map locations," said Joint Commissioner of Police Sandeep Patil.

"You simply navigate the route on the map and press 'Go' to have all of the application on your phone to give fake information about the location," says the app while downloading.

It took Ola’s system about three days to detect those fake rides. By then, the drivers had already earned lakhs of rupees and had abandoned all the details and documents such as SIM card, vehicle registration cards and others. Later, they would replicate the same procedure with a new set of SIM cards and other details to con the startup again.

In the effort to trick the startup, the fake drivers bought as many as 500 mobile phone SIM cards using counterfeit names and they themselves used to book the cabs. Police seized a laptop, printer, multiple cell phones, several identity cards, rubber stamps, SIM cards, documents, some stationery items, one Toyota Innova car, a red Maruti Swift and others.

It is not clear how much money Ola lost to this scam.