Scammers are ordering single sauce packets from fast-food restaurants as part of a popular DoorDash scam. Here’s what to look out for.
Reddit has multiple communities dedicated to delivery drivers sharing their experiences, helping each other out, and just venting.
In a recent popular post that has more than 8,400 upvotes, a DoorDash driver warned colleagues of a scam they fell for.
A suspicious sauce packet
In the post, Redditor r/Historical_Wall_7478 said someone ordered a single packet of avocado salsa from Taco Bell for delivery. (Weird, right? Who orders just a sauce, let alone just one sauce?)
More than halfway to the person’s house, the Dasher said they got a call from customer support telling them to turn around immediately because the charge was fraudulent.
“I could’ve gotten seriously hurt. People are messed up,” the person wrote.
What’s the actual scam?
Unfortunately, this simple yet deceptive scam has been going on for a while. We know of at least two different Dashers who’ve been nearly tricked.
Here’s what happens: The scammer places an order for something minuscule (that virtually no one would actually order), like a packet of sauce.
The Dasher, not thinking too much of it (and frankly just wanting to complete another order), accepts the delivery.
While they’re on the way to the address and concentrating on driving the scammer calls, they claim they’re DoorDash support and that the account has been flagged or there’s a security risk. The scammer then asks the Dasher to give them the security code that just popped up on their phone.
The Dasher, thinking they’re talking to an actual customer support person, tells them the code. This code is the last step the scammer needs to get into the Dasher’s account and likely steal their information and earnings.
It’s a cruel scam targeting workers who are often already struggling to earn enough. On top of this, the scam can lock the Dasher out of their account, causing them to lose out on work hours and even days.
In the Redditor’s situation, they confirmed the call actually came from customer support, so they could have been headed into a potentially more insidious and dangerous situation.
“I got the full money back after I ended the call and it said DoorDash canceled the order so I have no idea I was sketched out by the call though,” they wrote.
How do people fall for this DoorDash sauce packet scam?
One, the scammers set up a plausible situation. It makes sense that DoorDash might flag a strange order.
On top of that, even if a person got the warnings from DoorDash to not give out codes, a Dasher may miss this while driving, or English may not be their first language.
A person on Reddit pointed out that when the Dasher accepts the order, all they see on their end is that it’s one item. They don’t know what the item is.
Commenters react
“Its fraud, they do a 0 dollar order and try to scam you. If you see 1 sauce packet or anything like this always decline,” the top comment warned.
“Why decline? Go to the restaurant, call support, they’ll cancel it, and you’ll get half pay. Don’t answer the scam call it’s that easy. Support knows about this scam,” a person suggested.
“I’ve actually done this before. I accidentally put in the order without adding my main order,” another shared.
The Daily Dot reached out to the Redditor for comment via direct message and to DoorDash for comment via email.
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