The Federal Court of the Northern District of California has accused two residents of Houston, Texas, of theft amounting to over a million dollars from couriers of the DOORDASH food delivery service. The indictment alleges that Oluvatobi Otukel and Evan Edwards embezzled earnings from at least 138 couriers across six states in the United States over the past two years.
The fraudulent scheme involved the use of personal information belonging to couriers to deceive the DOORDash customer support service. The perpetrators would contact customer service representatives posing as couriers who purportedly lost access to their accounts. They would then request changes to login credentials, ultimately redirecting funds to bank accounts under their control.
To verify the identity of the couriers, the scammers employed a variety of personal information, including phone numbers, date of birth, details of recent transactions, and even the last four digits of driver’s licenses. While the sources of this information are not specified in the indictment, the possible involvement of additional accomplices is mentioned.
In certain instances, Doordash would request a selfie for identity confirmation. In response, the perpetrators would send their own photos in an attempt to circumvent the company’s heightened security measures.
The misappropriated funds were utilized for personal expenses. For example, in July 2023, one of the accomplices siphoned $759.88 from a courier’s account, with half of the amount going towards payments for Edwards’s loan on a Mercedes C300 convertible. It was also revealed that the perpetrators had endeavored to engage Doordash employees in their illicit scheme.
Doordash has acknowledged the occurrence of theft and indicated that it had promptly escalated the matter to the FBI. Otukelu and Edwards were apprehended on September 26. The company further stated that it had suspended employees found to be complicit in the fraudulent activity and expressed optimism regarding the equitable punishment of the culprits.