Beware of lousy scams when it comes to carpooling

Driving together saves fuel and money. If you are looking for rides online, you should not fall for fake drivers and wrong payment platforms, otherwise it could get expensive. BlaBlaCar, among others, is affected.

Fraudsters are currently trying to trick the customers of the ride-sharing app BlaBlaCar with fake profiles and links to fake payment sites. The aim is the credit card data of the users. That’s why you should take a closer look before every trip or booking.

Online scammers lure BlaBlaCar with fake pages

They don’t offer a ride, but they do have a well-disguised phishing site. Anyone who books a ride with the fraudsters via the platform then receives a link via the messenger service that leads to a fraudulent payment platform. Here a small amount is to be paid in advance to an alleged “BlaBlaCar commission”. Because the site appears to belong to BlaBlaCar, many users are not immediately aware of the scam, according to Watchlist Internet.

The Internet address of the fraudulent website is also the same as the real one. It is assumed that the fraudsters want to use this to steal credit card data, for example in order to then urge the victims to release payments.

Also read: Beware of account blocking! Nasty Amazon scam in circulation

This is how you can protect yourself

If you want to protect yourself, you should be particularly careful with new providers on the platform. Especially when there are only a few reviews, but at the same time a large number of trips are offered – often several times a day there and back, special attention must be paid. And most importantly, never click on links sent by rogue drivers. Instead, users who want to pay for their ride should always go directly to the app or platform or pay in cash when they leave the car.

If you are affected, contact the police immediately and contact BlaBlaCar. It is also advisable to block the credit card so that the online fraudsters cannot do much with the data.

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