A strange DoorDash delivery in Austin, Texas, has sparked conversation online after a customer says a driver tried to pass off an artificial intelligence generated photo as proof their food had arrived.
The incident was shared publicly by DoorDash customer Byrne Hobart, who posted about the experience on Twitter on December 26. According to Hobart, the order was marked as delivered almost immediately after being accepted, despite no one ever showing up at his home.
“Amazing. DoorDash driver accepted the drive, immediately marked it as delivered, and submitted an AI-generated image of a DoorDash order […] at our front door,” Hobart wrote.
In his post, Hobart included the image sent by the driver, which appeared to show a DoorDash bag placed at a doorstep. He then posted a second photo of his actual front door, highlighting differences that raised red flags and led him to believe the delivery photo was fake.
Hobart later elaborated that he doubted the driver was ever physically near his home. He suggested the person behind the account may have relied on deceptive methods to convince both him and DoorDash that the delivery was legitimate. He also speculated the situation could involve a compromised driver account, theorizing that someone may have hacked into a real Dasher’s profile, updated the payout details, and attempted to complete multiple fake deliveries before being detected.
“For what it’s worth, someone chimed in downthread to say that the same thing happened to him, also in Austin, with the same driver display name,” Hobart said.
DoorDash confirmed to Nexstar that the account connected to the incident has been permanently removed from the platform.
“After quickly investigating this incident, our team permanently removed the Dasher’s account and ensured the customer was made whole,” a DoorDash spokesperson said. “We have zero tolerance for fraud and use a combination of technology and human review to detect and prevent bad actors from abusing our platform.”
The company added, “Our teams are constantly working on improving those systems as new tactics emerge.”
Hobart later noted that DoorDash refunded his order, issued a credit, and that his poke bowl eventually arrived.
