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.
Migrants are using each other’s accounts on food delivery services like UberEats and DoorDash to illegally make deliveries with zero background checks
Pictured: Migrants, mostly from Venezuela, are seen crossing the border seeking asylum
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.
‘Who’s renting a DoorDash account,’ posts a woman to a Facebook group used by Venezuelans in Dallas
A man selling an array of delivery and ride share accounts to the Venezuelan community advertises on Facebook
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.
‘I rent my Uber account. Message me privately if someone in Fort Worth is interested,’ another man posted to Facebook
‘If you tell me, ‘Look, I don’t have $900 upfront,’ there’s the option to do installments, like $300, $300 and $300, but then the cost would go up. The account would cost $1,300.’
He added that the account would be handed over as soon as they had the money, and it would even be personalized to show the face of the person a reporter requested.
Another said his account could be rented for $120 a month, but since his account was authorized for a male, the person who rented it must also be man.
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’.
‘One-hundred-fifty dollars a week! You don’t make that much money as a delivery driver. This whole area is saturated since every Venezuelan who arrives has gone to work in that. People are driving out to rural areas trying to get work,’ he exclaimed.
‘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.
Pictured: Migrants crossing the Rio Grande border in El Paso Texas in December 2023
These are the people that the Venezuelans are escaping from,’ San Francisco immigration attorney Karina Velásquez told DailyMail.com of the gang known as TDA by federal authorities.
‘It’s really suspicious to me that so many Venezuelans are working in the same job.’
The Bay Area of California has also been flooded with food delivery drivers from her home country, the Venezuelan attorney shared.
Velasquez fears TDA gang members, described as the epitome for evil for the human and sex trafficking that made them infamous, could soon start showing up at people’s home.
‘Organized crime is always going to find a way. It’s going to be hard to tell the good people from the bad people,’ she added.
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
Colorado cops sought eight men suspected of looting the store, before one was caught by Homeland Security who claimed he was associated with the Tren de Aragua gang, pictured
Tren de Aragua gang tattoos (pictured above) were part of a Department of Homeland Security bulletin that was recently shared with federal agents
‘I believe we need to start making the delivery company accountable. Who are you giving my information to? They have your address; they have your name. Who are your drivers?’
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.
A Venezuelan man who was working under a different’ person’s account on Walmart’s delivery app crashed into a parked car in Frisco, Texas, a Dallas suburb, in July
The Venezuelan man showed his South American driver’s license after the crash. He did not have a Texas driver’s license
A woman visiting the Dallas area for Fourth of July had her car hit by a Venezuelan driver who was using a delivery app that wasn’t his, reported the local Fox station.
»Screech!’ I was praying like please don’t let that be my car,’ Elena Hollopeter told the outlet.
‘I know that’s my car, but please don’t let it be my car.’
Hollopeter’s parked car had $4,000 worth of damages after the migrant crashed into it in a Frisco, Texas neighborhood.
The driver was making a delivery from Walmart via an app called Spark.
‘We realized that this driver did not have registration or driver’s license, as well as he was uninsured,’ she said.
The man did share his Venezuelan driver’s license and expired registration.
The car the Venezuelan man crashed into had more than $4,000 worth of damages after a Venezuelan man slammed into the parked vehicle in July
Elena Hollopeter, the Oklahoma woman’s whose car was damaged by the Venezuelan driver, sought to force Walmart to pay for the crash repairs. The retailers eventually agreed after a Dallas TV station aired her story
‘The driver came right up to us. He seemed pretty happy, shook my boyfriend’s hand, shook my hand and then went on his way,’ she explained, adding that she passed all his information on to police.
To her shock, officers told her there was nothing they could do.
When she tried to go to Walmart to get the mega-retailer to pay for her repairs, they told her they were not responsible since the Venezuelan was driving for a third-party app.
It was only after the Oklahoma resident went to the media and the station aired the story that Walmart agreed to covered the costs.
The driver who hit Hollopeter’s car is not an authorized driver on the Spark platform, Walmart confirmed.
A different person, who meet all the requirement to drive under the Sparks platform, let the migrant frequently make deliveries under their name.
That particular account has been deactivated, Fox 4 reported, but it’s unclear whether Sparks is doing any kind of review of other accounts.
Spark’s driver sign up website says they require drivers to be over the age of 18 and be ‘authorized to perform services as an independent contractor in the U.S.’
Drivers must also have a valid social security number, a current driver’s license and insurance and undergo a background check.
Spark’s driver sign up website says they require drivers to be over the age of 18 and be ‘authorized to perform services as an independent contractor in the U.S
Uber told DailyMail.com all its couriers are required to hold a valid right to work in the US and pass a criminal background check.
‘Our Community Guidelines explicitly prohibit account sharing and it’s something we take very seriously,’ Uber said.
‘If we find that a courier is sharing their account or using a fraudulent account, we remove their access to our platform, no exceptions.’
DoorDash referred to information on the company’s website that describes its driver-vetting process as a ‘robust, multi-layered identity verification and safety screening.’
Aside from requiring a background check and current forms of government ID, DoorDash requires drivers to confirm their identity even after they start driving for the platform, it said.
‘Dashers are prompted to confirm their identity by submitting a real-time selfie which is then compared to their previously-submitted, valid government ID photo,’ their website says.
‘Over 100,000 Dashers are required to re-verify their identity each week to help prevent account sharing and unauthorized access to the platform.’
Neither app was able to explain how so many migrants are able to get around these layers of security.
