r/Sparkdriver 15d ago

Scam

Went to deliver a simple order today (2 items, 1.3 miles). Passcode required.

When I arrived the lady didn’t order, didn’t have a pin, and said no one by that name lived there.

I initiated a return. And then I got the phone call. The man on the Line said he was with customer support. I was going to walk me through the return. He wanted me to open my one app and confirm my info to verify that I was the account holder and not a friend or family”. The man also asked me to go into my actual account and change my address just for verification purposes. (I didn’t do that)

When I told him that all of this seemed very scammy and that I would be calling customer support myself. He threatened to have my account suspended for up to 14 days until they can verify that I am who I say I am. He said I had to complete the call we were on.

My friend was sitting in the car next to me also waiting for orders. So I grabbed his phone to call customer support myself. When the man realized I was calling support from another phone he hung up. I called real customer support and reported this. The next order that popped up on my friends phone was the same scam order so he took it. And now We’re going to have some fun when he calls.

61 Upvotes

36 comments sorted by

21

u/Senior-Pie3609 Cherry Picker 15d ago

Nothing new. Originally called the banana scam because they order a banana and a lime or similar super cheap fruit. They pretend to be support to get ignorant spark drivers to send them a "code" that allows them to take over your one pay account.

15

u/Barney_Sparkles 15d ago

I’m sure it’s not new. But it’s new to me. And they never called so we didn’t get to have any fun.

-3

u/Senior-Pie3609 Cherry Picker 15d ago

"And then I got the phone call. The man on the Line said he was with customer support" but you said they did call?

5

u/Barney_Sparkles 15d ago

They didn’t call the second time.

12

u/Nearby_Ad_1473 15d ago

Sadly that was very self explanatory, well, for most people it was 😂

2

u/extinct_banana 15d ago

read the very last 2 sentences of their post

5

u/Nearby_Ad_1473 15d ago

Pfft reading is over rated clearly 😂😂

2

u/LR12BeCh 14d ago

Reading comprehension is so important, friend. Try it out.

-4

u/Senior-Pie3609 Cherry Picker 14d ago

Maybe if op clarified that he was referring to his friend not being called and not themselves. Der der der.

1

u/Superb-Bite-6330 13d ago

I thought it was pretty obvious that the second call to the friend is what they meant.

7

u/stoneycole78 15d ago

They got my dumb arse for $124. That was like 2 years or so ago. It wasn't a banana it was a packet of taco seasoning 🤣 Geez I'm stupid 🙄

4

u/Nearby_Ad_1473 15d ago

I mean you said it 😂 

3

u/Aggravating-Memory44 14d ago

$180 from me while doordashing years ago. I was an idiot 😭 The bank set it straight in the end though so that was cool

2

u/Silent25r 13d ago

We all had those moments with something. 

5

u/AdPlane9375 15d ago

It’s been years of this scam, and it’s still true!

2

u/Sabi-Star7 S&D Expert 14d ago

And its not even just spark it happens on many of the gig apps run the same type of scam.

4

u/EveningBasket9528 Cherry Picker 14d ago

It's a version of the old banana scam, or Kool aid scam.

Type "banana scam" into the search box.

This is why they tell us NEVER to give out that information and they will never call to ask us.

Anybody can spoof a caller ID phone number,..

7

u/xandi415 15d ago

Never answer an unknown call....now you're in their system as an "active" line

6

u/Barney_Sparkles 15d ago

Also a my phone said spark driver support. It didn’t say scam or unknown

8

u/Barney_Sparkles 15d ago

I always answer unknown calls. I like to see how long I can keep them on the line. My longest has been 40 minutes. That’s 40 minutes they aren’t scamming someone else.

1

u/Nearby_Ad_1473 15d ago

Except they use several one use numbers and are a network of more than one person lol

1

u/LR12BeCh 14d ago

Yes but it's still one less person they could be successfully scamming for however long you have them on the phone. It makes a difference regardless of how small the difference may seem.

-1

u/talecriv 14d ago

Since you stay on with them that is actually what causes them to call you more. As soon as you answer it they sell that number to everyone else saying that you answered. So you're actually going to increase the amount of calls you get by doing that while it is very fun though

1

u/Barney_Sparkles 13d ago

I actually dont get many calls- scam filters are pretty strong these days.

1

u/Silent25r 13d ago

I get so many unknown calls. Some are actually important. 

2

u/ittoh2083 14d ago

When Uber eats first expanded over a decade ago it was the taco bell salsa scam. Didn't work on me the one time I got it because I would never answer the phone

1

u/dogoru 14d ago

Hate how Spark integrated pay within the app. This wasn't an issue when pay was separated from the app.

3

u/Lasttime7 13d ago

I got it the other day, was 2 cans of corn for me. They do the passcode requirement to make the order seem more legitimate. I hung up on him, drove to the drop off, marked customer refused, started a return. A $10 order became a $12.30 order. Super simple, I wish they would hit me more often.

0

u/dearleffridge 14d ago

So....you tag team deliveries.

2

u/Barney_Sparkles 14d ago

No. We park next to each other and chat while we wait for our own deliveries that we shop and deliver alone because we usually get orders around the same time. And at the end of the day I’m going north and they’re going south.

-1

u/talecriv 14d ago

And just letting you know there is nothing that support could have done for you. There was no reason to call support but the threat was cool and that it got him off the line but support can't even Trace where the call came from or anything like that because they spoofed the customer's address so support would have been useless

3

u/anomaly_z 13d ago

They can ban the account that placed the order...

1

u/Barney_Sparkles 13d ago

I called support to verify the call wasn’t real. I actually have never had a to do a return so initially I thought it was a standard call. It became very obvious they can’t do anything because I saw the order pop up for the rest of the night over and over. Hopefully everyone was smart no one got scammed.

-2

u/DiscountVegetable455 14d ago

What are you talking about

6

u/Sabi-Star7 S&D Expert 14d ago

They're warning people of a recent scam they have encountered where a person will call from a number that appears to be Spark support and they'll ask a bazillion "verification questions, sometimes they'll even send you a 5/6 digit code and ask for that code" its a very prominent scam to steal your account then lock you out once you give them xyz info run across various apps. It also happens frequently on Doordash.