[fweespeech]

How much do you want to bet if I stole a driver's phone the app would stay logged in and I could pretend to be them? A phone is much easier to take than a car.

Even with a picture, I could just wear stuff that obscures my hair, etc. so they wouldn't get a good look to the difference.

[gambiting]

The exact same argument applies to someone who steals an actual, licensed taxi, and I don't think people worry about fake taxi drivers when they get a cab.

[DanBC]

I agree, but people are warned about unlicenced cabs and many cab companies in UK will send an SMS with details of the car - make, colour, licence plate number - when you book because there was a problem of unlicensed cabs with radio scanners taking passengers before the real cab got there.

[fweespeech]

Of course but stealing a whole car tends to result in actual police scrutiny.

The last couple of times someone I know had a phone stolen the result was indifference.

[dnautics]

You would still need their car, as the passenger side identifies the vehicle with license plate.

[fweespeech]

Ya about that...

http://www.licenseplates.tv/replicate_a_plate.php

[dnautics]

So you're going to steal a driver's phone, appropriate a car of the same make and model, and color, then replicate a plate, before the app requires you to sign back in (every 3 or 4 days or so).

[liberte82]

Uber also displays the license plate number of the car and the vehicle make/model in the app when you make your order. This provides an additional level of verification if you have security concerns.

[fweespeech]

http://www.licenseplates.tv/replicate_a_plate.php

Actually, its not really a solution. All of these identifiers are easily duplicated :/

[dEnigma]

But why would anyone go through all this trouble just to impersonate an Uber driver and assault a passenger?

[fweespeech]

http://www.januscam.com/index.php/news/125-cab/taxi-security...

http://www.purdueexponent.org/city_state/article_8748c000-a1...

Faking Uber would be easier. Admittedly, iirc, these people were scammed relatively easily and at less of a threshold than pretending to be an Uber drive would require.

[dEnigma]

Interesting, maybe it isn't that far-fetched after all, though the risks of doing this by impersonating an Uber driver seem a little too hight to convince scammers.

[dEnigma]

Hadn't thought of that, though that seems like a very unlikely scenario, since you would also need the car. And driving around in a stolen car with a stolen phone probably won't work for long and will probably get you caught just as fast as an actual Uber driver who assaults someone.

[pavel_lishin]

That seems like a movie plot.