It reads like a movie script, but it’s real. Two scammers sold pirated smartphones to more than 800 Uber drivers to charge thousands of rides at inflated prices. To do this they relied on two apps and they carried out this fraud for years, totaling 40 million dollars.
They were caught. Hundreds of VTC drivers who profited from these fraudulent services were identified. Although the largest share went to the two scammers themselves: it’s estimated that at least a little over a million dollars.
Six years raking it in by always charging dynamic fares
If you’ve ever used Uber, you know dynamic pricing: it is applied when demand is high, whether in a certain area at a certain time or, for example, due to sporting events, festivals or concerts. A well-known case is the more than 100 euros charged for short rides at the Madrid Mad Cool festival a few years ago, for instance.
Taking advantage of this much-criticized, often abusive fare, Arturo Suárez Palacios and Eliahou Paldiel, both residents of Queens (New York), carried out their highly profitable scam for six full years.
Deceiving the Uber app as if it were ‘Pokemon GO’. Palacios and Paldiel dedicated themselves to selling smartphones with three pirated apps installed. And they didn’t sell them cheaply: for each of these phones drivers paid $600 or a $300 monthly subscription. But the investment paid off once they began providing service with these devices.
According to the case report, one of these apps was ‘Fake GPS’. It allowed spoofing the location in the Uber app, fooling it into believing that a ride was being offered in a dynamic fare area. And another was ‘Screwber’, developed by the scammers, which enabled drivers to select the most lucrative rides before customers accepted the trip. With this combo, they charged trips at premium prices.
“Ya sabes, Screwber es como las drogas… una vez que te metes, sufrirás síntomas de abstinencia cuando no puedas conseguir tu dosis”, escribió en un mensaje de texto Suárez a Paldiel, según se recogió en el informe.
Both had worked for Uber, but Paldiel in particular aimed to harm Uber, even claiming that his life would make sense if he managed to ruin the company.
Easy money. A lot of money. Specifically $1.5 million is the total they are believed to have earned, although the prosecutor says it could have been higher. In any case, the hole caused by these fraudulent trips was 40 million dollars. Uber said it had to limit access for thousands of drivers.
On the lookout for drivers. The scheme proved highly profitable for drivers as well: more than 800 purchased these pirated phones to bill customers far more than they should. According to the filing, they met with the two scammers at various points across New York City.
And they didn’t hide much: FBI agents who have been investigating the scam say they were lined up at the wheel of their VTC cars. On one occasion, while tracing Paldiel’s phone to the meeting spot, they saw more than 20 cars waiting to receive the coveted phone.
But they won’t walk away unscathed. The FBI is already trying to identify these drivers who played it clever, as they are considered co-perpetrators of the crime. And they will face criminal charges as well. Palacios and Paldiel are charged with electronic fraud and money laundering.
“As alleged, the defendants tried to enrich themselves by corrupting the ride-sharing market, taking advantage of unsuspecting passengers and other VTC drivers who abide by the rules,” Breon Peace, one of the federal prosecutor’s spokespeople, told the New York Post.
The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission is working with the FBI to track them down. Reimbursing customers for the excess charges cannot be ruled out, although it will be challenging given the scale and the many years the fraud lasted.
Initially, Paldiel and Suárez pleaded not guilty and were released on a $210,000 bond. They eventually pled guilty before the Brooklyn federal court in mid-2026 and were sentenced to two years in prison each. They can be pleased, because they faced up to 20 years in prison.
