優(yōu)步中國出現(xiàn)“幽靈車”

It’s not quite Halloween, but an eruption of creepy faces on driver profiles at Uber in China has spooked potential passengers and raised suspicions of an organised attempt to scam the car-booking app.

現(xiàn)在遠未到萬圣節(jié)，但優(yōu)步(Uber)在中國突然出現(xiàn)的陰森恐怖的司機頭像嚇到了潛在乘客，并且令人懷疑存在有組織刷單的行為。

Some Uber users have booked cars only to be assigned drivers with distorted photos and scary faces, while their trips suddenly begin and end before a car has arrived. In other cases, “ghost” cars appear in the app but never arrive, resulting in false charges.

一些優(yōu)步用戶下單約車，結果發(fā)現(xiàn)接單司機的相片扭曲，而且面容可怖，同時在車抵達之前，他們的行程突然開始并很快結束。還有一些情況是，“幽靈”車出現(xiàn)在應用中，但從未在等車的乘客面前出現(xiàn)，導致虛假收費。

The incidents come at a time of transition for Uber, which merged its China operations with rival Didi Chuxing in August. The similarity of the “ghost driver” incidents in a number of different Chinese cities over the past month imply an organised attempt to exploit staffing gaps during the handover, experts said.

這些事件發(fā)生在優(yōu)步中國今年8月與競爭對手滴滴出行(Didi Chuxing)合并之后的過渡期間。過去一個月里，中國許多城市里都出現(xiàn)了類似的“幽靈司機”事件，專家表示，這表明有人在有組織地在利用優(yōu)步中國移交業(yè)務期間的人手短缺刷單。

Uber said the complaints reflected “individual drivers’ scamming behaviour”, adding that it would “use technology to squelch such behaviour” and block the accounts involved.

優(yōu)步表示，投訴反映了“個別司機的刷單行為”，它補充稱，將“使用技術手段打擊此類行為”，并封掉相關賬戶。

Nathy Chen, an Uber customer, had an experience typical of many recent complaints. She booked an Uber car but the driver that accepted had a scary picture. Before she had left her building to meet the car, the driver had already initiated the trip and ended it 30 seconds later, leaving her with a small charge of Rmb9 ($1.40).

優(yōu)步客戶Nathy Chen最近就遇到過典型的“幽靈車”。她下單預定了優(yōu)步車，但接單司機的頭像陰森恐怖。在她下樓等車之前，司機已經開始了行程，并在30秒后結束行程，并收取了9元人民幣(合1.40美元)的費用。

Uber has been refunding the charges to customers who complain.

優(yōu)步一直在向投訴的客戶退款。

“It was at night and from the driver’s location I was expecting the driver to arrive very soon. The map showed the driver just passed me, but there was no car around,” said Veaer Wang from Shandong province, who realised the next day he had encountered a ‘ghost driver’ when he saw similar complaints online. “The road was very narrow and there’s no way a car could have passed me without me seeing it.”

來自山東省的Veaer Wang表示，“當時正是晚上，從司機的位置來看，我預計司機將會很快到達。地圖顯示司機剛從我身邊經過，但周圍卻什么車也沒有”。她在第二天看到網上類似的投訴，才意識到自己遭遇了“幽靈司機”。“路非常窄，汽車不可能在我看不到的情況下經過。”

It’s not the first time that Chinese scammers have developed sophisticated means to exploit the car-booking service. Scams were particularly common when both Uber and local rival Didi Chuxing were offering generous subsidies to both passengers and drivers in an effort to gain market share. That battle ended with the merger deal last month, in which each company took a 20 per cent share of the other and Didi acquired Uber’s China operations.

這并非中國刷單者首次鼓搗出復雜方式蒙騙網約車服務。在優(yōu)步中國和國內競爭對手滴滴出行向司機和客戶提供高額補貼以獲取市場份額的時候，刷單行為尤其普遍。這場燒錢戰(zhàn)隨著兩家公司上月合并而結束——按合并協(xié)議，兩家公司彼此持有對方20%的股份，滴滴收購了優(yōu)步的中國業(yè)務。

But the recent rash of “ghost drivers” are very different from traditional individual scammers, said one analyst with a leading data group. “They seem to be an organised group with the technical back-up for such incidents, and not without a purpose,” he said. “This is a time of transition for Uber after the merger with Didi. A lot of the team work handover has not been finalised yet, which gives scammers an opportunity to exploit the system.”

但一家領先數(shù)據機構的一位分析師表示，最近相繼出現(xiàn)的“幽靈司機”與傳統(tǒng)的個人刷單者非常不同。“他們似乎是一個有組織的集團，擁有刷單技術支持，而且并非毫無目的，”他表示，“現(xiàn)在是優(yōu)步與滴滴合并后的過渡階段。很多團隊工作交接尚未完成，這給刷單者提供了一個利用該系統(tǒng)的機會。”

Yin Zuoning, Uber’s chief anti-scamming officer, recently joined Yidao, another car-booking company, contributing to the staffing gaps during the transition.

曾負責優(yōu)步反作弊業(yè)務的尹佐寧最近加盟另一家約車公司易到(Yidao)，這加劇了優(yōu)步在過渡期間的人員缺口。

Since the merger was announced, both companies have reduced the subsidies that in Uber’s case were costing $1bn a year. Uber’s popularity has already begun to fade, with its app on Apple’s Chinese App Store dropping from number one to number 80 among all iPhone apps and fifth place among travel apps.

自從優(yōu)步與滴滴合并的消息公布后，兩家公司都減少了補貼，優(yōu)步每年的補貼曾高達10億美元。優(yōu)步的受歡迎程度已開始下滑，其在蘋果(Apple)中國應用商店的所有iPhone應用中的排名已從第一下滑至第80位，在出行應用中的排名跌落至第五。

A similar fade-out occurred after Kuaidi Dache, a top ranking car-booking company before it merged with Didi Dache in February 2015 to form Didi Chuxing.

快的打車(Kuaidi Dache)在2015年2月與滴滴打車合并組建滴滴出行(Didi Chuxing)后也出現(xiàn)了類似的淡出，在合并前，快的打車曾是中國排名第一的約車公司。