Research Flags Top Fraud Challenges Faced by Food Delivery Companies

One fraudster created 800 fake accounts to exploit new user coupons and was able to steal 1.5% of the total redeemed coupon value that month.

Identity solutions specialist, Incognia, is releasing its 2024 Frontline Report which ranks the top fraud challenges faced by global food delivery and ride-hailing companies in 2024.

This shows that fake accounts represented 57% of the driver side fraud, while refund and promotion abuse were tied for the top consumer side fraud type, each representing 48% of total high risk assessments returned by Incognia respectively.

Incognia works with just over half of the largest food delivery and ride-hailing companies globally. These companies together represent over 20% of all of the food delivery and ride-hailing users worldwide. The company offers tailored solutions to the gig economy helping them to mitigate complex fraud challenges like fake account creation, account sharing, refund and promotion abuse.

In a scenario analysed by Incognia, one fraudster created 800 fake accounts to exploit new user coupons and was able to steal 1.5% of the total redeemed coupon value that month. Another case showed how a bad actor was able to access 400 different accounts on a single device in order to consume thousands of dollars worth of promotions in 30 days.

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Similarly, refund abuse, which accounted for 48% of the consumer side fraud detected by Incognia, was also reported to impact nearly 50% of merchants worldwide, according to the MRC 2024 Global eCommerce Report. In one case, Incognia identified a single Samsung device that accessed over 200 accounts to fraudulently return more than $5,000 worth of stolen merchandise. The fraudster then likely resold the items to double their profits.

“Fraudsters are becoming more sophisticated, relentlessly targeting gig economy platforms with advanced fraud techniques that erode user trust and degrade the overall experience,” said André Ferraz, Co-Founder and CEO at Incognia.

“This report exposes the broader fraud landscape affecting gig platforms. With the right solution – like Incognia – these companies can detect and prevent suspicious behavior seamlessly, without adding friction for legitimate users. The results speak for themselves – gig economy companies are achieving returns of 7 to 12x when using Incognia for fraud prevention.”

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