Uber drivers have become fairly common in mainstream society. Still, many people understand that some drivers may not be the most honest. This is perfectly demonstrated in a recent story out of Arizona where a man posed as an Uber driver and scammed passengers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now, he’s facing felony charges. 

Some Uber drivers can’t be trusted

Uber drivers are an essential part of the world today. After all, some people don’t have vehicles and even those who do sometimes need to use a ride-share app. According to Fox 10 Phoenix, one man recently stole over $200,000 from two different passengers in Scottsdale, Arizona. In both cases, the man pretended to be an Uber driver to get close to the alleged victims. 

The story goes that, like many Uber drivers, the man, Nuruhussein Hussein, waited in busy areas where people would need rides. However, this situation was different in that he called out to his victims by name as they were waiting for their rides. Of course, this should be a significant red flag for anyone who uses ride-share apps. Once the victims were in the car, he would gain access to their phones by saying his device was dead or there was an issue with the Uber app that he could troubleshoot because it told them their driver had not arrived. 

In both cases, the man used the passengers’ phones to transfer cryptocurrency from their Coinbase accounts. This driver was able to transfer a total of $223,000 from the two victims using either phone-to-phone transfer or phone-to-cold storage methods. One of these events happened in March, and the other was in October. Of course, you should never give your personal items to Uber drivers. 

He has now been arrested

The first victim of the Uber driver had this to say, “He made threats to one of the victims that they needed to chill or something bad would happen, and the victim believed that he had a gun, although he did not see a weapon at that time.”

The latest is that the police arrested him on December 11th. They are holding him on a $200,000 secure bond. If he makes bail, the authorities will monitor him electronically.