They took Uber and Lyft for a ride.
A group of 19 alleged scam artists have been accused of running a nationwide scheme in which they stole thousands of identities to create fraudulent rideshare and food delivery drivers’ accounts, which were then leased to people who hadn’t passed any driver background checks.
Last week, one member of the group, Flavio Candido da Silva, 36, of Malden, Mass., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Da Silva was accused of collecting over $200,000 on his own in the scheme.
He faces a maximum of 22 years in prison when he is sentenced in April. His attorney had no comment.
“In all, prosecutors say the group stole the identities of more than 2,000 people.”
Federal prosecutors say the scam, which ran from at least 2019 until April of this year, relied upon procuring stolen identities. Some were allegedly acquired from the dark web, but many were stolen from customers the group encountered while doing deliveries for the companies they were scamming.
For example, when delivering alcohol, the defendants…
