When companies or entities earn several money, there will really be scammers who will do everything to steal those money – such as what happened with DoorDash when its delivery driver in California stole a whopping $2.5 million from the company. Here is the scoop.
Guilty
A former delivery driver for DoorDash stole over $2.5 million from the company. His plea: guilty. As it should be, babe.
The driver, who drives their vehicle around Newport Beach, pleaded guilty earlier this week to one count of conspiracy after committing wire fraud and victimizing DoorDash, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California has confirmed.
Prosecutors stated the driver admitted to getting three others as their accomplices in a massive fraud scheme that spanned from 2020 to 2021! Whoa.
In their scheme, they made DoorDash pay for deliveries that never really happened, resulting in over $2.5 million being scammed from DoorDash.
Arrested
Already, the mastermind and four accomplices have been arrested and indicted. They were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and pleaded guilty on different dates.
The prosecutors added that this incident was related to a similar scheme committed by another driver, who was indicted in a separate indictment in 2022 after committing the fraud in November 2023.
The driver who stole $2.5 million from DoorDash will appear in court for a status hearing this September. He will serve 20 years in prison (maximum statutory penalty) and pay a fine of $250,000.
Legally, DoorDash, a platform that provides food delivery services to people who order on the platform, has drivers fulfill those orders by getting the food from restaurants, then delivering them to customers.
Their crime
Between November 2020 to February 2021, the driver and their friends created several fraudulent customer and driver accounts with DoorDash.
Since they got regular DoorDash user accounts, they used the platform to place in high-value orders from restaurants across northern California.
Worse, they also used employee credits to access DoorDash computer systems and software and manually reassigned orders from the fraudulent customer accounts to their driver accounts.
Then, they would report that the orders had already been delivered, so they get paid by DoorDash.
To hide the mess, the driver used DoorDash software to alter the orders from Complete status to In Process status, while reassigning the orders to their accounts that they have control over. Prosecutors stated this process took just less than five minutes, so they were able to make hundreds of orders, resulting in the amount they stole.
DooDash is a food delivery platform available in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It offers an easy-to-navigate platform, so you can quickly get your orders and satisfy your food cravings.
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