The Risk team at Uber steps in to mitigate these fraud and abuse problems. Throughout the years, our Risk team has built many systems to fight fraud, including our rules engine, Mastermind, and numerous machine learning models leveraging our graph database of knowledge.

The Risk Team at Uber is a specialized group of data scientists, engineers, and analysts responsible for maintaining the integrity and safety of the "three-sided marketplace" (riders, drivers, and merchants). In 2026, their primary mission is fraud prevention and mitigation. This includes identifying and blocking "bad actors" who use stolen credit cards, create fake accounts to farm referral bonuses, or engage in "collusive fraud" where a driver and rider coordinate fake trips to trick the system. The team builds and maintains the "Mastermind" rules engine, an AI-powered system that evaluates every transaction in real-time to decide if it should be allowed, flagged for review, or blocked. Beyond financial fraud, the Risk Team also works on "Physical Risk" by analyzing trip patterns to detect potential safety issues or unauthorized account sharing. By 2026, their work has become increasingly automated, using machine learning to stay one step ahead of sophisticated global fraud rings.