According to court documents, a group of Brazilian nationals residing in Massachusetts, USA enaged in a scheme to defraud rideshare and delivery service companies. Specifically, the group created large amounts of fraudulent accounts on rideshare and delivery platforms via fake identity documents and then rented out those accounts to other individuals who would use them to perform the traditional gig work.

It is worth nothing that there is a large demand for fraudulently verified rideshare/delivery service accounts. People who may be entering a country illegally and not be able to submit the necessary documentation to get an account approved with one of these platforms, or may not be able to pass the criminal background check, are the captive audience for this type of product. Realistically, their desire to use these platforms is simply to earn money and not likely to be anything nefarious, however, the social implications of this type of fraud may indeed be harmful. For example, if a background check is required to be a rideshare driver and a prospective applicant has a history of sexual crimes, for example, it would be arguably reasonable to bar them from driving around possibly vulnerable strangers. The purchase of fraudulent verified accounts would allow them to circumvent this safety measure. In practice, however the vast majority of the purchasers are likely illegal immigrants hoping to earn income.

In addition to renting out the fraudulent accounts, the conspirators earned money through fraudulent referral bonuses and GPS spoofing that allowed them - and users who they sold the technology to - to increase the length of trips on the platforms thus inflating the pay for a given job.

Ultimately, the conspiracy's undoing was through the usual mistakes. A number of fraudulent accounts were created on the same IP that was linked back to one of the members of the conspiracy. Furthermore, some fraudulent identity documents were created using the real photo of one of the conspirators. Law Enforcement analysis of the bank accounts of the conspirators also indicated that they regularly used highly traceable payment platforms such as Zelle to remit payments from their fraudulently obtained referral bonuses and other revenues.

An interesting element to this case is that the FBI (the law enforcement agency that seemed to be primarily investigating this conspiracy) was unable to obtain the passcode for the phones one some of the conspirators. As a result, the FBI applied for a search warrant of the phone asking the court to compel the attempt to unlock the phone through biometrics - specifically, forcing fingerprint or face unlocking mechanisms in lieu of the passcode.

The alleged leader of the conspiracy, Thiago De Souza Prado, was sentenced to 70 months in prison. Most likely, a large percentage of the duration of this sentence is due to the fact that Mr. Prado took the case to trial rather than accepting a guilty plea - which surely goes hand in hand with his aforementioned unwillingness to unlock his phone. The "trial tax" is a reality in the courts of most western governments and one could assume that Mr. Prado may have received a much lesser sentence with a plea.

Sources:

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.234218/gov.uscourts.mad.234218.22.1.pdf

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ri/pr/revere-massachusetts-man-sentenced-nationwide-rideshare-and-delivery-account-fraud