“Dear PoPville,

On Saturday night I was out with a friend in Logan Circle when I used the Uber app to select an UberX to come take me home around 10:20 PM. I was connected with a driver pretty quickly, but she messaged me in the app saying that the map would not show her moving until I gave her my phone number–that there was “an update to the app.” I had recently read about some other sketchiness in Uber on PoPville, so I didn’t respond as I was chatting with my friend about how I thought it was a scam. Read More

photo by Diane Krauthamer

From MPD:

“The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) would like to warn the public about a financial telephone scam, where callers posing as representatives of MPD falsely assert criminal legal action in exchange for monetary funds.

The Metropolitan Police Department has been notified of multiple phone calls regarding scammers impersonating members of MPD who have attempted to extort individuals, claiming that federal subpoenas and warrants have been issued against them. We are informing the public that they are not members of the department.

If you happen to receive unsolicited phone calls similar in nature: Read More

“Dear PoPville,

We received the note pictured on our car late last week. I was on a walk this morning and saw the exact same note on another car. Read More

photo by Pablo Raw

“Dear PoPville,

I recently received a Monetary Determination from DC’s Office of Unemployment Compensation that I believe may be fraudulent. I have not filed an unemployment claim with the District of Columbia. I found this to be a crazy coincidence given today’s DCist article.

The letter was mailed to my old DC address and my old landlord forwarded the letter to my new address (I’m now a resident of Virginia).

Out of curiosity, I navigated to the DC Unemployment Insurance Portal website, clicked on “Account Sign In” and “Forgot Your Password”. When I typed in my Social Security Number, it said “Password has been sent to [email protected]”, which is NOT my email address. Read More

“Dear PoPville,

I just wanted to share a scam that I unfortunately fell victim to this morning. I locked myself out of my house. I had a Nest lock that I was able to unlock, but we also had a regular entry door lock in the doorknob, for which I’d accidentally left the keys inside.

I called a company, which had great google reviews. With that service, you call dispatch, and they send a technician out. The locksmith arrived, and began working. She spent about one minute trying to pick the lock, then before I knew what she was doing, she pulled out a drill and completely destroyed the lock. She claimed it was necessary, and then offered to sell me a new one for $125 (the same lock costs $20 on Amazon). This was on top of the $250 she’d already charged for the service.

This all seemed wrong, since it was a regular door lock, no deadbolt, no damage. Read More

“Dear PoPville,

I’m in the midst of a weird situation with Uber – wanted to alert others/see if this has happened to anyone else. Called an Uber this morning in DC, driver texted through the app and said he needed a pin/passcode that would be texted to start the ride. I had heard about Uber’s new safety pin feature- got the text, shared the pin. Then, the driver messaged back and apologized and said he needed the pin that got sent to my email b/c the first one expired.

I went into my email, got the pin. Then, we noticed the driver was not moving, so we messaged him back. No answer. Then we called the number in the app. Disconnected. Cancelled ride several times. Driver repeatedly accepted again (same driver). Then, I got kicked out of the app. Logged in, could not change it. My phone number was changed to a foreign number. Tried to reset password via the website, and lo and behold I cannot because the driver activated two step verification on my account, and all the notifications go to him. Read More

Thanks to RT for sending “Dubai scam—Just wanted to alert you and all those that read your site…they are BACK! On a ramp getting on to the Beltway off of Greenbelt Road… probably considered Berwyn Heights Maryland.”

Thanks to Melanie (and other readers) for sending the shady new scam above. DOES warns:

“DOES is the only source of information and support for your unemployment claim. Beware of individuals posing as representatives of DC government. Read More

“Dear PoPville,

My car windows were smashed parked overnight at 9th and Q Streets on Sunday evening. Apparently many other cars as well. My father’s coworkers’ windows were smashed at 9th and O the same evening. Apparently, there’s a man that walks around offering to repair their windows which makes me suspect they break them and then offer to repair them as a scam.”

another reader reports: Read More

Photo by Erin

“Dear PoPville,

My partner and I were driving home down North Cap near M St NE last night when that guy in the white car readers have written about in the past honked at us and yelled that our “wheel was wobbly” and we needed to pull over. It was pretty suspicious to begin with, but remembering your post about his antics made it way less stressful to blow him off and continue our ride.”