Refund fraud lets customers claim food was never delivered with zero verification

Customers can report an order as 'never delivered' through the app and receive an instant refund with no investigation — the driver has no way to dispute it beyond a grainy GPS screenshot, and the restaurant eats the food cost. Organized rings exploit this by placing high-value orders, claiming non-delivery, and reselling the food, costing individual restaurants thousands per month. Drivers accumulate 'non-delivery' strikes on their accounts for orders they provably completed, and enough strikes lead to deactivation with no meaningful appeals process. Platforms default to instant refunds because fighting chargebacks costs more than absorbing them, and the fraud cost is distributed across restaurants and drivers rather than the platform itself.