Gig workers turn to apps like Uber and DoorDash to make money by offering rides and making deliveries.
Some independent contractors have come up with another way to make money using the apps: Selling access to those apps to other people, according to a new survey.
Forty-five percent of gig workers surveyed by TransUnion said that they had either rented or sold access to a gig work account on a gig work platform, the company said in a report released last week.
Gig work apps such as Uber, DoorDash, and Walmart’s Spark have told Business Insider that they don’t allow users to share their accounts with other people. It can pose a safety risk to the apps and the people who rely on them, since the apps vet workers when they sign up.
Twenty-five percent of the gig workers surveyed said they had rented out their account, while 20% said they had sold an account. Meanwhile, 45% said they had never done either.
The survey, which was conducted in August, asked 1,012 adults who were either current gig workers, had recently quit gig work, or were about to start doing gig work.
On Facebook, Telegram, and other social media platforms, users can find ads offering to sell or rent accounts for gig work apps. Many also offer third-party programs, called “bots” by gig workers, which claim to give users an edge in claiming deliveries.
At Walmart, some Spark delivery drivers have shown up at stores or customers’ homes using names that don’t appear to match who they actually are, Business Insider reported in 2023. Walmart has since taken additional steps to verify who its delivery workers are, such as asking them to stop by a store and show their ID.
Thiry said prospective gig workers might buy or rent accounts for several reasons, such as not having a long enough driving history or being unable to pass a background check.
In some parts of the US, there are also waitlists of people trying to work for some apps.
Gig work apps have been cracking down on account sharing
Sharing accounts with other people violates the terms of service for major gig work apps.
Uber says on its support site that it has “zero tolerance for confirmed complaints of this nature,” for example. A company spokesperson said that users who share their accounts risk “losing access to the Uber platform permanently.” Last year, Uber required all its drivers and delivery workers to reverify their identities.
A DoorDash spokesperson also confirmed that the company removes workers from its app for sharing accounts. In 2024, DoorDash said it began requiring more frequent identity verification for some delivery workers to crack down on account sharing.
TransUnion, which provides identity verification services for apps and websites, asked gig workers about renting or selling accounts after seeing an uptick in suspicious activity, Colleen Thiry, director of TransUnion’s gig economy business, told Business Insider.
“Our data was showing some signals of workers selling their accounts,” Thiry said, such as accounts that were long associated with Android smartphones suddenly showing up on an iPhone.
TransUnion and the platforms follow up in such cases to verify the user’s identity, Thiry said. In some cases, there’s an innocent explanation: perhaps a gig worker logged into their account for the first time on a new phone.
There are other types of suspicious activity in gig work, TransUnion’s survey found. Forty-three percent of gig workers surveyed said they have experienced tip-baiting, in which a customer offers a high tip only to cut it after the gig worker agrees to complete the order or trip.
That practice can be demotivating for gig workers, TransUnion’s analysis of the survey said.
Fraud poses risks to the companies behind gig-work apps since both workers and customers need security, TransUnion’s Thiry said.
“Both sides of that transaction need to feel safe and secure,” Thiry said.
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