Four drivers fleece lakhs from Ola using technology

BENGALURU : 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.

The drivers downloaded Mock Locations (fake GPS path) app to trick the app that they drove customers in real using false map locations.

"Drivers utilize mock area application, show that they have driven the Ola taxi by demonstrating bogus guide areas," said Joint Commissioner of Police Sandeep Patil. 

Accessible on Google Playstore, Mock Locations application empowers an individual to create counterfeit telephone area data. 

"You basically explore the course on the guide and press 'Go' to have the entirety of the application on your telephone to give counterfeit data about the area," says the application while downloading. 

As indicated by Jain, the group of four was reserving bogus or counterfeit Ola taxi trips utilizing the fake area innovation so they can gain commission from the startup. 

Following three days, when the



Ola framework figured out how to identify that the rides made by the group of four were phony, it was past the point of no return as the drivers had just earned the commission and deserted all the subtleties and records, for example, SIM card, vehicle enrollment 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.

Incidentally, Ola did not file a complaint with the police and learnt about the matter from a police official's tweet.

"I think there was a suo motu case filed by the police and they have nabbed the culprits. I am trying to understand but this is an old case," an Ola executive told IANS.

Likewise, it is also not clear as to how many lakhs of rupees Ola lost.

"I think these guys faked being a customer, they also faked being a driver. So on both sides," he said, deciphering their modus operandi.