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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Delivery apps DoorDash, Uber Eats infiltrated by Venezuelan migrants |
| 2024-08-27 |
| [Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Hundreds of Venezuelan migrants are illegally working as food delivery drivers across America, DailyMail.com can reveal, showing up to your door under names and identities that don't belong to them. The troubling development is a consequence of the one million Venezuelan citizens who have flooded into the US, largely illegally, during President Joe Biden's time in office, with many entering through the US-Mexico border. It raises huge concerns about the safety of the home delivery apps and the consumer's ability to trust who is actually delivering food to their home and family - with customers' personal information potentially placed in the hands of dangerous street gangs. Venezuelans tell DailyMail.com they gravitated toward the jobs because they're an easy way to make money when they first arrive in the US. 'Before I even left Venezuela to come here, I knew I could rent an account that wasn't mine to work in food delivery,' one South American migrant who works as a DoorDash driver in Dallas, Texas, explained. While he is authorized to work and be in the US, he didn't want to be associated with crime and asked that his name be withheld. 'As soon as you arrive to the US, the first thing you do is look for a way to make money, and for many of us, that's food delivery,' he added. But many brazenly rent or sell their food delivery app accounts on Facebook. The Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area is now home to at least 20,000 Venezuelans, most of whom have arrived since 2021. New arrivals know it's as easy as joining Facebook groups for Venezuelans in DFW to start earning cash as a food delivery driver - albeit for a fee. On a daily basis, migrants seeking to rent out their delivery app accounts make their pitch on the social network. 'Who's renting a DoorDash account?' posted one woman to the 'Venezuelan Friends in Dallas, Tx' group on Facebook. In some cases, migrants are in the US legally and have permits to work. In others, they do not yet have a work permit - a process that can take a few weeks or months- even with legal entry. And other Venezuelans are here illegally and working illegally. Others charge desperate-to-work illegal newcomers to use their accounts, without concern for the potential threat to public safety, let alone the illegality of it all. 'I rent my Uber account. Message me privately if someone in Fort Worth is interested,' another man posted. DailyMail.com contacted several people who were advertising use of their food delivery and ride-share accounts. Most immediately asked a reporter to contact them through WhatsApp, an encrypted messaging app, or called back on the phone to discuss details of how it works so as not to leave behind text message proof of the illicit arrangement. 'I rent and sell. The rental is $150 a week and you must keep it active for three months continuously, and if you want to buy it it's $900, OK?' the mystery man told DailyMail.com in Spanish. At an arepa restaurant in Villa Dallas, the Venezuelan enclave in Dallas, migrants confirmed that this is an 'incredibly common practice' and called the rental fees 'extortion'. 'For $150 a month, you're just working to keep someone else's account active. It's extortion,' he said, asking to remain unnamed for fear that criminal organizations might be behind the account rentals. Many voices in the Venezuelan community fear that could be the case, as the notorious super gang Tren de Aragua from their homeland has also arrived in the US. Venezuela's most violent gang Tren de Aragua has moved its headquarters to just across the US border in the Mexican town of Ciudad Juarez. In a startling and surprising admission, the Dallas Police Department confirmed Tren De Aragua is in North Texas committing crimes, but wouldn't say whether it is involved in food deliveries. 'We have had gang activity in the north Dallas area linked to the Tren De Aragua gang from Venezuela,' a police spokeswoman told DailyMail.com. 'Our department is collaborating with other agencies to address possible crimes linked to this and other gangs in our city.' Unauthorized use of these accounts has already created victims. Neither [Uber nor DoorDash] app was able to explain how so many migrants are able to get around these layers of security. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |