‘Incredibly concerning’: Facebook black market groups offer rideshare and delivery driver accounts for sale, researchers say

By Clare Duffy, CNN

New York (CNN) — “Need an Uber Eats account in Jacksonville, FL ASAP.” “I have one.”

“Looking for an Uber eats account to rent in Virginia.” “Available.”

Those exchanges were found on a public Facebook group with more than 22,000 members called “UBER ACCOUNT FOR RENT WORLDWIDE.” It’s just one of 80 Facebook groups where users regularly discuss buying, selling and renting driver accounts for Uber, DoorDash and UK-based Deliveroo that were identified in a new report from the non-profit tech watchdog Tech Transparency Project, which CNN received exclusively ahead of its Monday release.

These Facebook “black market groups” could let people bypass those platforms’ background checks and driver’s license requirements to fraudulently pose as a credentialed driver or delivery worker, researchers wrote in the report. And that could create risks for users who rely on safety assurances from apps such as Uber and DoorDash to ride in strangers’ cars or order deliveries to their homes.

“It’s incredibly concerning because part of the reason Uber has been such an attractive tool for women, in particular, is because there’s some sort of semblance of safety when there’s tracking of who this person is … if something were to happen,” said Tech Transparency Project Director Katie Paul. “If that’s not the case, then what’s the point of using this platform?”

A Meta spokesperson said the company would review the report and remove any content that violated its rules. Five Facebook groups were removed after CNN flagged them to Meta — including “UBER ACCOUNT FOR RENT WORLDWIDE” — for violating the company’s “Rules, Scams and Deceptive Practices” policy.

DoorDash spokesperson Julian Crowley said in a statement that the company is “hitting account fraudsters hard, from aggressively enforcing our rules to rolling out even more safeguards to shut down unauthorized access.”

“Our tough approach is delivering clear results: we’re deactivating more fraudulent accounts, conducting more real-time identity checks, and preventing more offenders from returning,” Crowley said.

An Uber spokesperson said “protecting the integrity of our platform is a top priority. Account sharing is never allowed, and we have robust safeguards in place from account creation to trip completion designed to help verify that the person using an account is the rightful owner.”

“When we determine that an account holder is engaging in account sharing, or other forms of fraud, we ban their account from the platform,” the Uber spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the company works with law enforcement when it identifies fraudulent behavior.

Deliveroo did not respond to a request for comment.

An existing safety concern

The issue isn’t entirely new. In 2019, London’s transportation regulator attempted to temporarily bar Uber from operating in the city over safety concerns, including that unauthorized drivers had been able to access the app and pick up riders using authorized drivers’ accounts. Uber at the time called the move “extraordinary and wrong” and said it didn’t reflect safety updates the platform had made.

Last year, Wired profiled a woman who made thousands of dollars fraudulently renting out Uber and DoorDash accounts before being arrested after Uber tipped off the FBI. Heather Childs, then Uber’s trust and safety chief, told Wired the company was “committed to constantly improving our detection capabilities to protect against fraudsters’ ever-evolving schemes.” A DoorDash spokesperson said the company had made “huge strides on tackling fraud.”

In February, police in Wilbraham, Massachusetts arrested a man accused of raping a woman after making an Uber Eats delivery to her home. The alleged victim told police that the app had indicated a woman would be delivering her order, but the man showed up instead, according to a report from the Boston Globe. Uber at the time called the incident “horrifying” and said it banned the driver account. Lawyers for the accused man said he denied the allegations, the Globe reported.

To sign up to drive or deliver on Uber, DoorDash and Deliveroo, workers must have a valid ID or driver’s license and insurance and undergo a background check. Both Uber and DoorDash prohibit sharing driver accounts. Deliveroo allows workers to appoint “substitutes” to deliver orders for them, but they must also go through an identity check process, and the app bans buying or renting access to accounts.

Still, the Tech Transparency Project report suggests that more must be done to prevent unauthorized drivers from delivering orders or shuttling riders. The group is also urging Facebook-parent Meta to more aggressively enforce its rules against fraud and deceptive practices by cracking down on these black-market groups.

TTP has previously reported on Facebook groups that enabled unauthorized buying and selling of business manager accounts to run ad campaigns on the site, raising scam and election interference concerns. Meta said it removed those groups when flagged.

Meta needs “more reliance on human moderators,” in addition to its automated tools, TTP’s Paul said. “Unfortunately, we have a single researcher looking at this who is able to find this problem very easily, and the platform’s failure to invest in human expertise is a major problem.”

‘Uber Delivery Drivers Account for Rent’

For the report, Tech Transparency Project said researchers created a new Facebook account and began typing “uber account” into the platform’s search bar. Before the words had been fully typed in, Facebook auto-populated “uber account for rent” as the first suggested search term.

That led researchers to dozens of Facebook groups where users sought or offered up active Uber, DoorDash or Deliveroo accounts. Users often posted publicly in the groups to advertise or ask for an account. Once they received a response, the requesters often suggested moving the conversation out of public view to direct messages, the report states.

As of the report’s publication, at least 73 of the original 80 Facebook groups that researchers identified were still active, according to Tech Transparency Project.

“TTP did not interact with any of the users posting offers for driver accounts and was not able to examine the names, profile photos, or other details of the accounts for sale or rent,” the report states. “But clearly, they are meant to give people the ability to drive for these services under a false identity.”

CNN was able to recreate many of the researchers’ findings. After one CNN reporter typed “uber ac” into Facebook’s search bar, the platform automatically suggested “uber accounts for rent” as the first search term. Searches for “doordash acc” and “deliveroo acc” returned similar results.

Public and private buying and selling groups, some with tens of thousands of members, are easy to find on Facebook, CNN’s review showed.

A Google search for “uber account for rent” surfaces the “UBER ACCOUNT FOR RENT WORLDWIDE” Facebook group as the second result. Google searches for “doordash account for rent” and “deliveroo account for rent” also return similar Facebook groups among the results.

While some posts in these groups appear to be spam or scams, others are seemingly genuine offers.

A January post from one group called “Uber Delivery Drivers Account for Rent,” which was created in 2024 and boasts more than 2,000 members, offered an Uber Eats driver account “on rent,” according to the report. When a commenter inquired about the cost, the original poster responded, listing the price as $65.

A CNN review of the same group showed that another user posted the following in April: “Hi, I’m interested in renting a delivery account long-term (London). I kindly ask for and offer seriousness!” Another user responded saying, “Inbox me.”

The groups pose a challenge for delivery and rideshare platforms, which have attempted to crack down on account sharing or selling.

In December, DoorDash said it would more frequently re-verify Dashers’ identities with regular, real-time selfie requirements. Each week, the platform requires more than 150,000 Dashers to go through identity verifications, and 15,000 prospective Dashers are prevented from accessing the platform because they failed to meet its criteria. The company also says monthly deactivations of inauthentic accounts doubled from the prior year.

“While many of these (Facebook) ‘ads’ are scams for accounts that don’t actually exist, we take all fraud seriously. Our teams actively monitor for suspicious activity — including ads for fraudulent accounts — and take action,” DoorDash’s Crowley said. “We’ve reached out to Meta to collaborate in dismantling these groups and stand ready to work with enforcement to hold fraudsters accountable.”

In January, Uber published a blog post outlining its efforts to verify drivers’ identities, including similar live selfie identity checks, consumer reporting tools and automated fraud monitoring software to identify risks such as multiple devices being registered to one account.

And earlier this year, Deliveroo told UK lawmakers that it had removed 105 delivery workers from the platform since April 2024 because substitute users of the accounts had provided “invalid right to work documents.”

Tech Transparency Project raised concerns that a recent pullback by Meta on some automatic rules enforcement could make the black markets problem worse. Meta said in January it would update its automated moderation systems to focus only on high-severity rules violations, such as child sexual exploitation, drugs, fraud and scams and that other concerns would have to be reported by users before the company evaluates them. (A Meta spokesperson said this area of enforcement would not be affected by its January policy changes.)

Facebook groups where users can access unauthorized rideshare or delivery driver accounts “creates obvious safety risks for Americans and others around the world who use these services,” the report states. “Until Meta cleans up this problem, it will continue to facilitate fraudulent activity that shadows the entire rideshare industry.”

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