Facebook post about attempted Uber “kidnapping” is false, say police

A viral Facebook post claims to tell the story of how one woman was nearly kidnapped by a female sex traffic worker posing as an Uber driver in Tampa, Florida.

But instead of a timely warning, the February 2019 post better demonstrates how misunderstandings and assumptions can ultimately lead to online urban legends.

Emma Hurley’s post began accumulating shares soon after she published it. The post described her terrifying ordeal when she realised she had gotten into the wrong Uber car, and found herself the would-be victim of a sex trafficking scam where female drivers pose as Uber drivers to kidnap unsuspecting female passengers. Hurley’s post is below –

Last night I was picked up by an Uber. Same car, female driver. I MADE A MISTAKE. I got in before checking, as she opened the back door for me from her seat. She drove erratically and didn’t speak. About 10 minutes in, my actual Uber called me asking where I was. My voice cracked, because in that instant I knew. “A car… I think I need help.” She told me not to hang up and to get out of the car however I possibly could. The lady refused to stop or respond to me. I told her she was driving by my friends (random girls I saw) and they would call the cops. She slowed a little, pointing at her phone saying “Uber. I take you back then.” I said, no here is fine. She kept going. I booked it out the door, car still moving. She sped off.

I later was told by numerous people she is a sex traffic worker. They use women to lure people in, and possibly hang out in the Uber lot to steal rides of similar looking cars. The cops didn’t come, but my real Uber driver did Cristin Cinquino, and hugged me, kept me safe, and cried with me. Always, always check your Uber. I’m lucky

However, after the Tampa police investigated the incident after Hurley reported it, it turns out that not all is as it seems. In fact, according to the police – who contacted everyone involved – while Hurley’s account was real, her assumptions were not.

In a statement disclosed to us, Tampa Police wrote that Hurley really did enter the wrong Uber, but it wasn’t being operated by anyone working in the sex trafficking industry, nor was it an attempted kidnapping.

Sponsored Content. Continued below...

The woman driving the Uber that Hurley entered into only spoke Spanish and little English. It was this language barrier that resulted in Hurley not being allowed to exit, because the Spanish Uber driver simply didn’t understand her requests. The police wrote –

A woman visiting Tampa posted on Facebook on Tuesday (February 19th 2019) that she got into the wrong car at the airport, believing it to be her Uber driver. Our investigation indicates that is exactly what happened. However, there is no evidence to support the woman’s statement posted on social media that she later “found out she is a sex traffic worker.
Tampa Police has contacted everyone involved. The driver of the car in question is a legitimate Uber driver who was at the airport to pick up someone else. The driver’s primary language is Spanish. The language barrier, and the fact that the woman got into the wrong car, led to confusion. Unfortunately, that also led to inaccurate conclusions that were then posted on social media.

 
It is these types of misunderstandings that quickly find themselves proliferated on social media that can then lead to the beginnings of Internet ‘scarelore’ and urban legends. The victim of the misunderstanding is told “by numerous people” that it could have been a sex trafficking scam, and once the tale is told and circulated on social media, any apparent doubt is seemingly removed. It “was a sex trafficking scam”.

Embellishments may be subsequently added, as they so often are. Hurley’s intended Uber driver, identified as Cristin Cinquino, also told the same story in a now-deleted social media post, only with added trappings, such as a “warehouse near the port” and a “boat where they ship the victims away“.

Last night I was doing what I always do, waiting in the lot to get a ride. My phone goes off with a ride from Uber and it’s a girl, she says she’s there waiting. I tell her where to go and tell her i’m [on my way] to get her. I pull up and she’s not there. I called, no answer, called again, no answer, called again, still no answer… something told me not to just mark her as a no show and leave, so I called one more time and she answered. I asked her where she was and she said “who is this?” I said “it’s cristin, your uber driver”, the next 5 min was the LONGEST, SCARIEST 5 min of my life… she said back to me, “i think I got in a car that’s not an uber, I NEED HELP.”
I listened on the other end, helplessly, while this girl is crying, begging the driver to let her out. The driver wouldn’t turn around and look at her and kept yelling at her to calm down and saying “i’m uber driver” in a foreign accent. The driver wouldn’t stop and was not headed to her destination, she got off the interstate at the Port of Tampa exit (likely headed to a warehouse near the port or directly to a boat where they ship all these victims away) I told her whatever she does, do NOT hang up the phone and that I didn’t care if the car was moving, leave your stuff and jump out of the car. She finally saw some people walking and told the driver they were her friends and she was on the phone with them and they would call the cops. The driver slowed down and she jumped out and ran.
I’m still on the phone this whole time telling her to run as fast as she can and find somewhere she can go inside. I made it to her to pick her up a few minutes later, she got in my car and I hugged her and we cried for a few minutes.
I’m pretty sure this woman was watching me and when she saw me get a ride on my phone, she left before me, in the same type of car, and picked up my rider.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, ask your drivers name, tell them to tell you your name, and check the license plate number!!!! It was late, she was tired as her flight was delayed a few hours and made a mistake that likely almost cost her her life.

There is a silver lining, however. While there have been no genuine reports of sex traffickers using fake Uber taxis as a method to kidnap unsuspecting women in the area where these reports surfaced, we should indeed be especially careful when using this service, as Hurley and Cinquino correctly point out. After all, it is hardly outside the realms of possibility that criminals could potentially use fake taxi services for nefarious purposes, including kidnapping (though there is no evidence that this is a trending type of crime in the United States.)

Some helpful tips to stay safe include…

– You are sent the license plate number of the Uber driver that has been assigned to you. Check the license plate matches before entering the car.

Sponsored Content. Continued below...

– You are also sent the driver’s name and photo. You can also use this information to verify the identity of the driver.

– The driver is sent your name, so confirm with them that they know who you are before entering.

– Always ensure that your phone is on and close to hand when entering an Uber (or indeed an Taxi service.)

As for this story, however, it does not describe a genuine kidnapping attempt. The original post from Hurley is still live at the time of writing, and has accumulated over half a million shares in only a few days.