A Naples woman posted a warning on Facebook: "Attention to anyone using Uber: there is a man posing as an Uber driver."
The woman claims she called Uber as she and a friend were leaving a North Naples bar. A Toyota Rav4 pulled up, and the driver asked her name. She and her friend got in and pulled out onto Goodlette-Frank Road.
Then the real Uber driver called her cell phone to say he was at the bar waiting. The woman checked her Uber app - and realized she was in the wrong car. When she asked the driver to stop the car, he refused. But she and her friend got out at the next stoplight.
Chris Specht of Amber Taxi says the episode is a bad reflection of Collier County's decision earlier this year to deregulate the car-for-hire industry.
"This just magnifies the potential danger that both citizens and visitors have, because they don't even know if they're getting in the right vehicle," Specht said.
Uber says that they perform background checks on their drivers. A spokeswoman told Fox 4 that their app allows you verify that both the driver and the car they're sending to pick up customers is the same one that arrives.
The app provides customers with the make, model, color and license number of the vehicle, as well as the name and photo of the driver.
The woman, who wished not to be identified, says that the incident was not the fault of Uber.
"If the real Uber driver did not alert us, we would not have known the driver was a fake so quickly," she wrote on Facebook. She admits that she did not verify the identity of the car and driver before getting in.
The Collier County Sheriff's Office told Fox 4 that they are not investigating the incident.
