• ‘Grab Lawan Opik!’ campaign resulted in 80% reduction in fraud since 2017 and several high-profile syndicate busts across Indonesia

• Shared comments at an event organised by INDEF to highlight the scale of the fraud issue in the ride-hailing industry

• Launches new features to protect driver income from fraud: Passenger No Show, 30 Seconds Cancellation and Automatic Bookings.

   

Jakarta, 7 June 2018 – Grab, the leading online-to-offline (O2O) platform in Southeast Asia today revealed the results of its 2018 ‘Grab Lawan Opik!’ campaign to cull fraud on the Grab platform. The results were shared in the context of a roundtable session organised by the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF) on the topic of “Unraveling the Fake Order Phenomenon in Ride-hailing”.

“According to our market research, up to 20% of all rides in Indonesia could be impacted by fraud if left unchecked. We’re happy to use this forum to share the results of our pioneering work in combating fraud in our industry. Since 2017, we’ve rapidly ramped up our efforts and our investment in anti-fraud technology, leading to a 80% reduction in fraud on Grab and several high-profile gang busts in cities such as Jakarta and Makassar. Our research point shows the Grab platform today is two times more resilient against fraud than any competitor in Southeast Asia,” said Tri Sukma Anreianno, Head of Public Affairs Grab Indonesia, speaking at the INDEF roundtable on fraud in the ride-hailing industry.

With the technology industry growing rapidly in size, fraudsters have been exploiting technology gaps for their benefit. A recent report published by AppsFlyer, a mobile marketing analytics platform found that marketers were exposed to $700m to $800m in mobile app ad fraud losses in the first quarter of 2018, a 30% year-over-year increase. Ride-hailing as a rising business ecosystem is also suffering from the same issue in the form of fake orders. In fact, fraud in the ride-hailing space is now so attractive, that a stolen profile for a  ride-hailing driver is actually five times more expensive than stolen credit card information on the black market.

“Fraud should be one of the most important conversations in ride-hailing today. It’s the cause of millions of lost dollars for drivers, investors and the digital economy in Indonesia. It’s by using advanced technology and collaborating with authorities that we can reduce and track down fraudsters within the platform. This collaborative approach with the local police helped us to bust syndicates in cities such as Makassar and Jakarta,” Tri closed.

Grab has taken its market-leading position in the fraud debate in the Southeast Asia market through the following measures:

• Preventive tools: Over the last years, Grab has implemented many proprietary machine learning algorithms on the platform which identify circumstances in which fraud might happen and prohibit them from the platform. Grab have several patents pending on its fraud technology. For example, Grab built robust models to predict the high-risk rides and place measures to prevent most of the risky or fraudulent rides from taking place preemptively. Grab also use proprietary graph and network models to uncover and take down syndicates.
• Detection tools: Grab has also built out a wide array of fraud-detection tools in the Grab app. These range from simply detecting the usage of fake GPS-apps to much more sophisticated forms of fraud.
• Fairplay program: an industry first for the ride-hailing industry in Southeast Asia. Grab’s whistleblower program allows drivers to participate directly in the eradication of driver fraud by reporting suspicious fraud activities as they happen. Whistleblowers are remunerated for successfully verified tips. The Grab Fairplay programme has already generated more than 9,000 tips in the first quarter of its existence and was the direct source of one of Grab’s high-profile gang busts in 2018.

During the session, Grab also revealed several new features on the platform, aimed at protecting driver partner earnings and increasing their productivity:

• • 30 Seconds Cancellations – Cancellations within 30 seconds not counting towards ‘Completion Rate’: Fraudulent ‘passengers’ launching fake orders, end up cancelling their rides within 30 seconds from being allocated to an honest driver. This ends up impacting driver’s ‘Completion Rate’ and their incentive payouts at the end of the week. This new feature will ensure these rides do not impact driver’s ride tallies any longer.
  • Passenger No Show – Cancellations when passengers don’t show up: This new feature accounts for another scenario in which fraudsters forget to cancel their rides overall. Drivers who are forced to cancel ride-hailing jobs in case passengers don’t show, no longer see these rides affecting their ‘Cancellation Rate’ and ‘Completion Rate’, both metrics which help to determine the level of bonus payout a driver might receive.

Automatic Bookings – The option to automatically accept requests: While not directly related to fraud, this feature, when turned on, enables drivers to accept jobs automatically and maximise their time on the road. Drivers can ensure they don’t miss out on jobs when they are distracted or if they step away from their cars or bikes. Another feature to give drivers the opportunity for secure earnings.

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