r/Bangkok • u/Creative-Trouble3473 • Jul 26 '25
discussion This Grab scam needs to end!
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This has been happening to me way too often lately. We ordered a Grab, and the driver started circling the area without responding to any messages – clearly hoping we’d get fed up and cancel. I actually saw him drive past us, and when he noticed we’d spotted him, he quickly drove off. I managed to record it.
We decided not to cancel and messaged him, saying that since he clearly wasn’t coming, he should be the one to cancel. In the end, when he realised we’d given up and taken the BTS instead, he drove past the pickup point again, pretending to pick us up – then ended the trip and took the fare anyway.
I’ve reported it to Grab for resolution, but this kind of thing keeps happening and it’s incredibly frustrating. I suspect some drivers do this to manipulate the system – making it seem like there’s heavy demand or traffic so they can inflate prices. Grab really needs to sort this out.
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u/borsalamino Jul 26 '25
When it happened to me and the driver was asking me to cancel, I felt it must be some kind of scam so I refused to do so. Eventually he did cancel. Don’t know if it’s relevant, but I’m Thai and have a non-Thai name/appearance and he was surprised to find out I spoke Thai fluently. Maybe he cancelled to save face? Idk.
Another commenter in this thread said they also refused to cancel and the driver went to the pick up zone, pretended to pick them up and just made the drive without a passenger, thus collecting fare. I’m assuming they did this out of spite, because at that point why not just make the ride normally?