Follow TNM’s WhatsApp channel for news updates and story links.
On the evening of January 14, as Tamil Nadu prepared to celebrate Pongal, Brahma Puthran (53), a lawyer, had just landed in his hometown Chennai. Around 9 pm, he boarded an Uber from Chennai International Airport for the drive to his home, 10 km away.
The ride, which began uneventfully, slowly unfolded into a carefully staged scam.
The driver, who was around 40 years old, Puthran told TNM, was courteous, helped load his luggage into the boot, and played romantic Tamil movie songs over the car’s speaker.
But five minutes into the journey, the mood shifted.
Without warning, the driver played a WhatsApp voice note. The caller sounded panicked, saying he had been trying to reach the driver repeatedly. The driver’s father, the man claimed, had died, and money was urgently needed at the hospital to release the body.
The driver pulled over, stepped out of the car, wailed, pulled at his hair, and appeared inconsolable before returning to the driver’s seat. He then made a series of 12 to 15 phone calls, which he played on speakerphone. On each call, he pleaded with someone for a short-term loan of around Rs 25,000 to cover hospital expenses.
“When I offered to take another cab so he could go home, he insisted on dropping me first,” said Puthran. He claimed that he anyway had to head in the same direction before travelling to his hometown in Dindigul.
“As the journey went on, the story changed,” Puthran said.
What started with a father’s death soon turned into a conversation purely about money. “Every call had the same emotional pitch — people saying things like ‘Amma va paathuko’ (take care of your mother).”
The driver never directly asked him for money, but “he wanted me to hear every call,” Puthran said.
This triggered Puthran’s suspicion.
Uber, one of the world’s largest ride-hailing platforms, is built on a system of trust — strangers matched by an app, mediated by ratings, GPS tracking and cashless payments. But this is a story of how that very same structure can become a stage for abuse.
Puthran’s experience reveals how it is also about guilt, empathy, and the instinct to help can be coldly manipulated, turning ordinary human decency into a revenue model.
A scripted scam
As Puthran continued his journey, he suddenly recalled an incident that a friend had recounted to him months earlier. It sounded identical to what was happening to him that night.
Her cab driver, too, had claimed that his father died and she had transferred money to help him. When Puthran checked the vehicle and driver details, he realised it was the same man.
Next, he alerted two of his neighbours to step out and stay alert as the cab neared his home. “When we reached my house and the driver stepped out to open the boot, I took his keys and phone and called the police.”
The next day, while being questioned by the police, the driver confessed to the fraud. His Google Pay records revealed eight “emergency” transfers from different passengers over the month.
Police later found that the driver lived in Chennai with his wife and two children, who were unaware of his actions. Both his parents were already deceased — directly contradicting the story he had enacted inside the cab.
What Puthran encountered was not just emotional manipulation, but a carefully staged performance.
According to him, the request for money typically comes at the end of the ride. Airport passengers are deliberately targeted as they’re exhausted after flights and assumed to be able to afford the amount.
“It didn’t feel random,” Puthran said. “When he stepped out of the car, it felt like a signal. The calls came in immediately. It was carefully planned.”
What makes the scam particularly difficult to move legally, Puthran said, is that the victims transfer money voluntarily.
“We cannot file a case since the money is given out of sympathy. Also, the money is requested as a loan and the scammers can maintain that they have time to repay the money,” Puthran pointed out.
Why people fall for it
According to Dr Vandhana, a clinical psychologist, emotional-manipulation scams work because they tap into deeply ingrained human instincts.
“People help out of sympathy, regardless of the medium,” she said. “There is often guilt associated with refusing, and fear about how one will be judged for not helping.”
Digital marketing consultant Kiruba Shankar noted that scams driven by emotional pressure can be more effective than conventional online fraud.
“In tense, emotionally charged situations, the believability factor is extremely high,” he said. “Unlike hacking, where success rates are relatively low, this method works far more often. That’s what encourages scammers to repeat it.”
Kiruba added that ride-hailing platforms need to take greater responsibility. Aggregators, he said, should actively educate passengers and create dedicated SOS or reporting mechanisms to flag suspicious behaviour. “That would help identify patterns involving specific drivers and remove them from the system.”
He also advised passengers to record conversations if they sense something is amiss.
Systemic gaps and weak enforcements
Uber is among the world’s largest ride-hailing and mobility platforms, operating in about 70 countries and 15,000 cities, with over 180 million monthly active users and nearly 6 million drivers and couriers.
Between April and June 2025, the company reported $12.7 billion in revenue across its businesses, including ride-hailing, Uber Eats, freight and other services.
In India, Uber operates in more than 125 cities, has around 1.4 million monthly active drivers, and has completed over a billion trips. Between 2023 and 2024, the company reported a 41% rise in operating revenue, reaching Rs 3,762 crore.
TNM sought a response from Uber’s grievance redressal department, detailing Puthran’s experience and asking what action the company had taken. Uber responded, stating that it had “made a note of the feedback on the driver-partner’s profile.” Citing privacy policies, the company did not disclose whether any action was taken against the driver or whether the passenger would be compensated.
Uber also told TNM that necessary actions may include sensitisation, guidance in terms of service, or temporary or permanent removal from the platform.
According to the report, “Crime in India” released in 2023, the number of cybercrime complaints has grown significantly between 2018 and 2023, with tens of thousands of cases of digital fraud reported annually.
The common forms of digital crime and fraud in India include financial and payment fraud, digital arrests, phishing, impersonation and malware attacks.
In such cases, if one files a police complaint, despite strong digital evidence, conviction rates remain low.
The legal procedures are not simplified in India, a senior cybercrime official based in Chennai told TNM.
Victims, he said, fall into a tiring legal process that makes enforcement difficult.
According to the official, there are two main targets in cybercrime — money and reputation.
“In cases like this, even if someone loses Rs 10,000, they are expected to go to police stations, courts, and even give evidence in witness boxes. Most people don’t prefer this because the process is time-consuming. Even advocates often show little interest in these cases.”