Airbnb & Uber scams: New book explores thriving criminal activity on big tech platforms

702's Gugs Mhlungu spoke to author and Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Science at Unisa, Julie Reid.

Listen to their conversation in the audio clip below.

"...when you use Uber, you just assume that a company as big as Uber will have verified the driver's licence and the criminal clearance records of their drivers, right? You assume that Airbnb will have verified that the property that you are booking actually exists in reality. Those assumptions that we make about these companies are really problematic because that is not the case... and that is what makes these platforms so vulnerable to misuse by criminal syndicates and by scammers."

- Professor Julie Reid, author

Airbnb, Uber and other sharing economy giants have changed the way we do things, but how safe are they? 

They are often advertised as reliable options within the sharing economy, but a new book titled Delusive Speech in the Sharing Economy: Scam Inc reveals a more troubling side.

While these services have made life more convenient, Reid warns that “the protocols on these platforms are at best really dodgy and at worst purely mythological.” 

Through over 600 real stories, Reid shows how scammers create fake listings and write false reviews to trick people into dangerous and expensive situations. 

She calls this tactic "delusive speech," highlighting the risks that come with using these platforms.

"Delusive speech is motivated by one thing, and that is to delude you in order to do you some form of harm, whether that's financial harm or physical harm. Basically, delusive speech is a type of disinformation that is 100%  motivated by crime...it is really prevalent all across the internet."  

- Professor Julie Reid, author

"... I looked at a number of cases where physical crimes had actually started because somebody was tricked online. In the case of Airbnb, I'm finding that the platform is being used by people who mean to do physical harm, to lure their targets into a particular location so that they can be robbed, assaulted, raped, murdered, funnelled into human trafficking, or extorted in some way."

- Professor Julie Reid, author

"...it's very important to realise that physical real-world crimes that cause physical harm also can be initiated online."  

- Professor Julie Reid, author

Reid says the main purpose of her book is to raise awareness that we shouldn't place blind trust in these platforms when we use them.

Scroll up to listen to the full conversation