IT WASN’T ME! Rider charged £80 Uber clean-up fee for HAND SMEARED food mess across backseats

An Uber passenger took to social media to complain about a £80 soiling charge ‘scam’ levied on them, demanding their money be returned.

The rider, Emily Weston, shared images of what appeared to be food smeared around the back seats by hand. The passenger denied having any food or drink in the vehicle during the journey and even left the driver a five-star rating and tip.

The rider claims to have been charged an extra £80 on top of the £12.52 charged for the journey itself. In the message sent by Uber it claims an incident occurred which resulted in a mess. The user's payment method was charged as a result for the clean-up.

Something known as the ‘Vomit Fraud’ scam has been around for a number of years since ride-hailing apps emerged. It involves staging fake mess to justify charging a clean up fee, which is only later discovered by the passenger.

The fraud can see drivers create fake stains and taking pictures as 'proof' before reporting it to the operator Uber.

Another user recently took to social media to share their experience. According to the user, £110 was taken from their bank account to cover cleaning costs and the time it took to clear up the mess.

However, the frustrated passenger disputed the claim and said there was no vomit throughout the journey. Upon looking into how the image was created, it was alleged that the image appears on Google searches dated as far back as 2015.

Emily Weston said: “Anyone else been scammed by their Uber driver? Been charged an £80 cleaning fee for a mess 100% not left by us. We had no food or drink with us. There are literally hand smear marks on the seats after leaving a 5 star review and tip!

“Uber Support I want my money back.”

Uber Support did reply and apologised for the ‘trouble’. The ride-hail firm have offered to ‘take a closer look’ into the incident.