The development of food delivery orders and their applications is also accompanied by the risk of crimes committed by irresponsible individuals. This phenomenon is better known as food delivery fraud which is very detrimental to customers, businessmen, the driver itself, and even the application owners themselves.
In an effort to overcome and prevent it, you need to first understand the types of food delivery fraud that commonly occur and their impact on you. Let’s look at more complete information in the article below!
Common Types of Food Delivery Fraud
In fact, there are common types of food delivery fraud that you can be aware of. Even though we cannot limited or classified the fraud into several point, at least we know how the fraud works and affect our daily like these types below that we will discuss:
Delivery Driver Fraud
As mentioned above, the fraud can also come from the driver. They tried to get a more profit from customer and apps, so they forced to do several things below instead:
Account Sharing
First, there are many cases of drivers who are not registered and do not comply with the application to deliver food. The trick they do is to use their friends’ or colleagues’ accounts for work.
Usually this can happen because the person does not meet the qualifications to work as a food delivery person.
However, in some other cases, this type of account sharing can take the form of 1 person having more than 1 account. So, they have the potential to get more profits because orders come in from different accounts.
Location Spoofing
Delivery drivers who lack technical expertise might cheat the apps that pay them for their services by using location spoofing. For instance, a delivery driver might employ location-spoofing to find jobs in locations with more traffic and greater wages.
So, they put the location point in a place that is far away or does not match the coverage area. However, they will buy similar products in their immediate area. As a result, customers have to pay more for shipping costs, tips, and so on.
Promo/Incentive Abuse
You need to know that promotions or incentives provided by developers can also be manipulated by drivers. They generally use several methods, such as fake ordering to create several accounts
In order to receive incentives, a driver places an order using a separate account and delivers the item themself. Not only that, they also recommend fake accounts to receive referral fees.
Automated Order Acceptance
Basically, almost every food delivery application has an automatic order acceptance feature. However, this feature can only be accessed by business owners. The goal is so that incoming orders are not ignored and can immediately serve customers.
However, the case is different if this feature is turned on by the driver. The reason is, the driver will immediately accept the order even though he has not completed the previous task. As a result, customers wait longer and have to pay higher prices.
Ghost Orders
Ghost orders do not only happen for the customer side. This is also done by the drivers. How?
Naughty drivers will carry out their actions by accepting incoming orders. Then, they will pretend to go to their destination or not even approach the location at all.
Lastly, they will complete your order! The money will still go into their account, but the food you ordered will never arrive.
Customer Fraud
Next, we will talk about the fraud that comes from the customer side. Yes, customers also can do many ways to profit from them. Here are some of the types examples:
Fake Accounts & Multi-Accounting
Irresponsible customers usually carry out criminal acts by creating fake accounts. How does it work? It’s simple.
They will make fake orders in the name of other people. This is not very good because it can be used as a means for scams or identity fraud. So, as a customer, you also have to be careful if you don’t think you ordered something or don’t know the person who sent it.
Account Takeover
Many criminals try to hack someone’s account to withdraw account balances and personal data. They hacked the account to make orders in their own name. However, there are also some individuals with the specific aim of making fake orders to bring down someone’s name.
Also Read: Account Takeover Prevention: Reducing Financial Threats
Promo Code Abuse
The promotions offered by food delivery are aimed at increasing sales and marketing. However, irresponsible individuals use these facilities incorrectly.
Usually, there are special promotions offered by applications for new users. Be it vouchers, discounts, and so on. So, these criminals keep creating new accounts with different names and accounts to get more promos.After that, they don’t use it anymore or delete it.
Friendly Fraud
Friendly fraud, also known as chargeback fraud, happens when a customer places an order using their own account and then requests a refund or submits a chargeback after receiving their food.
Sometimes a customer has a valid reason to use their delivery app to get a refund, such as unusually long wait times, incorrect order fulfillment, or a bad experience. In other cases, patrons merely want to eat for nothing and utilize restaurants and apps to do so.
Understanding Food Delivery Fraud Prevention
Even though many types of food delivery fraud have occurred, you can still prevent it by following these steps:
Implement a Multiple Authentication and Encryption
The first step that must be taken by both users and application owners is to protect themselves with a layered security system. As an application developer, you can facilitate applications with a 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication) security system.
This step could be the right effort because not just anyone can log into the account. Typically, 2FA is implemented by combining biometric access and traditional passwords.
So, if a face or account is not detected, the user must enter the registered password or PIN.
Also Read: AI Authentication: Top Fraud Prevention Solutions in 2025
Make Sure to Always Using a Trusted or Official Apps
From the user’s side, make sure that you have downloaded and registered an account on an official or trusted application. Never download applications outside of trusted providers such as the Google Play Store or Apple Store.
Up-to-date with The Newest Trend and Issues
Lastly, of course you have to keep up to date with the latest developments. You need to know information about what food delivery applications are currently booming, how they work, and the sources of the developers.
Apart from that, you also need to know the latest types of crimes committed by irresponsible individuals.
Detecting & Preventing Food Delivery Fraud Prevention with Keypaz
As an effort to implement the methods above, you can prevent this by using a trusted security system such as Keypaz. Keypaz provides advanced fraud prevention by securing every interaction. Keypaz really understands account takeovers, OTP spamming, and promo abuse.
Keypaz provides a multiplayer security system without disrupting the user experience. It can also detect unusual activities to prevent hackers from entering your account.
Many online applications already use Keypaz as their security system. Multinational companies use Keypaz for various industrial fields, from banking, health, to food and beverages.
This is a sign for you and your company to use Keypaz as your security system solution!