US Investigating UK Uber Payment Breach

Some British customers of Uber’s ridesharing app have claimed that money has been taken from accounts for rides they never took – a claim that has spurred U.S. authorities to look into how those users have been charged by the service.

The Guardian reported Saturday (May 23) that Uber has thus far found no signs of a security breach.

Some British Uber customers have taken to the Internet to post about their experiences with the company. Among some higher profile Twitter reports from users announcing allegedly compromised accounts were TV presenter Anthea Turner, who reportedly sent a tweet to Uber that read: “Account has been hacked nothing to help me on website – this is ridiculous.”

The Guardian quoted another cyberspace post that detailed a user’s communication from Uber, who said: “I woke up in London to find it said I had taken a $260 [£170] ride in a limousine in California.”

The U.K. media outlet posited that some Uber accounts may have been sold via the “dark net” which is in turn comprised of thousands of websites that carry out criminal actions cloaked in anonymity.

Jo Bertram, who helms Uber’s U.K. business, told The Guardian that Uber customers should make sure they use unique passwords. Uber, she continued, had notified the U.S. authorities about possible breaches. “Anyone who is charged for a trip they didn’t book or take will get a refund,” she told The Guardian.

The latest news about possibly compromised data comes as Uber is under fire from the U.K. taxi industry. The minicabs count in London alone has topped 78,000, up roughly a fifth in the past year. And Uber, with about 14,000 drivers, is the largest private hire company in the industry, with the service counting more than 1 million registered users in the U.K. London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, has reportedly been pushing to place a cap on the city’s number of licenses granted in the city.

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