Vomit Fraud: What is it and how to protect yourself

Jacksonville, Fl. — It’s a nasty and expensive problem you do not want to have…especially if someone just spent a night out on the town.

Consumer Warrior Clark Howard is warning those who use ride-sharing apps like Uber or Lyft to get to and from their destinations. He says some drivers are going after passengers by falsely accusing them of getting sick and making a scene by vomiting in the backseat.

"In order to get drivers to go out in the wee hours particularly in the party scene areas, they (Uber and Lyft) give them an automatic $150 simply by the driver reporting somebody got sick in the vehicle. They send a picture of it and that's it."

Clark says there is no verification on the passenger’s end and sometimes they wake up to the charge the next day. He adds there has been one case where a driver was caught planting a mess in their back seat to frame a passenger and collect the $150 clean up fee.

"If you are sober enough, when you're getting out of Uber or Lyft – just very quickly take a picture of the back seat of the vehicle to show that it was clean and fine when you got out."

Clark acknowledges this is a real problem because there have been cases when passengers do get sick in the back of cars and leave a mess. Clark says this causes the driver to be out of work for a while as they spend money and take time away from their job to clean their cars.