Grocery delivery app drivers warn about undocumented workers using fake IDs

By Chorus Nylander

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    TUCSON, Arizona (KVOA) — In this evolving world many people turn to their phones to get food or groceries delivered to their door.

The apps providing those services typically promise a robust verification process to assure the drivers are vetted and who they say they are but a group of drivers for Walmart’s Spark app tell the News 4 Tucson Investigators that isn’t always happening.

“These people have information of when you’re home, gate codes, they know if you have children, dogs, ring systems, security cameras they have all of that information by delivery to your house,” one driver explained.

He spoke to us under the condition of anonymity in fear of retaliation. That driver said he regularly sees people using false information to pick up orders and feels it creates an unsafe situation for customers and an unfair environment for verified drivers.

“We would see the same people picking up orders under different names which told us something fraudulent was going on,” he said.

He isn’t alone, the News 4 Tucson Investigators spent two months searching for other drivers willing to share their story who could vogue for the claims.

We found several others, one of them told us he frequently sees the same issue at the Walmarts he picks up from and has heard concerns about it from customers.

“When they tell me they’re expecting a Betty Richardson, who is supposed to show up at their door and it will be an actual male that doesn’t speak English show up at their door with their groceries it’s a red flag,” he explained.

We also found an employee that works within a Walmart that told us it’s true and something employees like himself are well aware of. He claims that he has reported it to management and has been told not to do anything.

“We know that they’re doing stuff, the managers as well know but nobody is doing anything,” he said.

We reached out to Walmart which sent us the following statement:

“Safety is our top priority, and we have comprehensive measures in place, including a third-party identity verification tool that compares driver selfies to government-issued photo identification, to ensure drivers on the Spark Driver platform are who they say they are. We also continuously monitor drivers’ criminal background checks and motor vehicle reports. Drivers selling or sharing personal or account information is against the Spark Driver platform Terms of Use and will result in deactivation from the platform. While the vast majority of drivers using the platform are doing so appropriately, we take any reports of fraudulent activity seriously and encourage drivers or Walmart store associates to reach out to us directly so we can investigate and take appropriate action.”

The News 4 Tucson Investigators obtained a criminal complaint filed in federal court by the FBI in Massachusetts as part of a criminal investigation into a group of people suspected of committing fraud by driving for delivery apps using false names.

Even though every person we interviewed is associated with Walmart we know they are not the only store being impacted by this.

Doordash told us it hasn’t been something they have seen much of but have rolled out special procedures to try and verify its drivers.

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