mangalore today

Bengaluru man calls out new airport taxi scam


Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru, December 18, 2024: Bengaluru is infamous for its traffic and hours-long traffic jams. People keep sharing about the traffic nightmare and less availability of public transport. Due to this, many people take private cabs and are dependent on cab aggregators like Ola and Uber. Now, a man recently took to social media to share his experience of booking a cab from Bengaluru airport. In his post, user Mahesh flagged an "inventive new scam" where taxi drivers use a replica of the Uber app to overcharge customers.


Taxi scam


In the following posts, Mr Suthar revealed that he was nearly scammed by an airport taxi driver in Bengaluru. He explained that the driver used an app called Blumeter, which looks exactly like Uber, to add an extra Rs 1,000 to his bill.

"What an inventive new scam by @BLRAirport taxi today. This dude showed me an exact replica of @Uber app when he started and ended the trip with 1000 bucks extra baked in. Said the extra is because of GST and when I asked for the bill he said I’ll get it next month. So cute," Mr Mahesh wrote in his post while sharing a picture of the taxi driver who tried to scam him.



In the next post, Mr Mahesh said he was "quite impressed" by the scam. He also explained how it works. "They use an Android app called Blumeter which looks like Uber. They’ll show & click trip start button build credibility. And then later, they’ll end the trip on the same app which shows a much higher amount," he wrote.

"If you ask for a proper bill - they’ll say billing system is broken currently. You’ll get the bill on email next month. Funnily, Mr. Rajagopal Y N didn’t even take my email or phone number. Busted haha!" Mr Mahesh added.



In the comments section, the X user shared a screenshot of the Blumeter app, available on Google Play store. "It was an airport taxi, not Uber. They’re using an app that looks like Uber. You can put in your own surge pricing to raise fares," he said.


Mr Mahesh’s tweets quickly went viral on social media. In the comments section, while some users said that they’ve fallen to similar scams, clothes asked why an airport taxi was using an app in the first place.

"In the actual Bangalore airport taxies, they have an actual meter running. Not an app," wrote one user. "If you dint book an uber then why would you think that was your uber ride? Not defending anyone here. Your story is not clear to me," commented another.

One user shared a similar experience. "literally this exact thing happened with me just today. guy didn’t even want the Uber OTP initially and when I asked him to enter it I could clearly see he did nothing with it. then at the end a higher price was shown through a screenshot. i then showed him the Uber app and said there’s no trip here, to which the guy replied that the "Uber servers are slow" lmao. i told him i’m a software engineer and won’t fall for shit like this. ended up only paying the initial amount that was showing on the Uber app when the guy realized he had been found out," wrote one user.

"Bangalore airport taxi drivers should be mandated to provide printed receipts & should have this displayed on the cab. They’ve started scamming people like this and even offer hand written receipts," commented one user.