A Fake Uber. Two Sisters. And a Crime San Francisco Keeps Seeing.
Two sisters left a club in San Francisco’s Mission District around 2 a.m. on October 18, 2025, and climbed into a car they believed was their Uber. According to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, the driver, Yucel Eryilmaz, 44, was not their Uber. He was not anyone’s Uber.
One sister rode in front; the other fell asleep in the back. When they reached the destination, prosecutors say, the front-seat sister got out — and before she could wake her sleeping sister, Eryilmaz sped off with her still in the car. On June 5, 2026, a jury convicted him of rape of an unconscious person and assault with intent to commit rape. He is to be sentenced June 18.
The case is awful on its own. It is more alarming as a pattern. San Francisco prosecuted a serial “Rideshare Rapist” just two months earlier. Boston, Chicago, and Long Island have all logged the same crime: a stranger with a phone and a parked car, fishing outside nightlife for someone too tired or too drunk to check the license plate.
- Oct. 18, 2025 — two sisters got into Yucel Eryilmaz’s car outside a Mission District club, believing it was their Uber · Source: SF District Attorney
- 100 years — the sentence facing Orlando Vilchez Lazo, San Francisco’s “Rideshare Rapist,” convicted on 11 felony counts in April 2026 · Source: ABC7 News
- Multiple — the women Boston’s Alvin Campbell was charged with assaulting from 2017–2019 while posing as an Uber driver · Source: WBUR / CBS Boston
According to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, the two sisters had ordered a rideshare after leaving the Mission District club. They got into the wrong car. The sister in the back seat fell asleep during the drive. After the front-seat sister was let out, prosecutors say, Eryilmaz drove away before she could rouse her sister — taking the sleeping woman to a parking lot near his own apartment building.
Surveillance video, prosecutors said, captured the car pulling into that lot. The victim later testified that she woke disoriented to find Eryilmaz assaulting her, and that he continued after she told him to stop. A jury convicted him on both counts on June 5, 2026, under California Penal Code § 261(a)(4)(A) and § 220(a)(1). Sentencing is set for June 18, 2026, where he faces more than a decade in prison under California law.
“The jury's verdict holds Mr. Eryilmaz accountable for his crimes. I would like to thank the survivor for her courage in coming forward.”
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins (D) · San Francisco · June 5, 2026
San Francisco had been here before — recently. In April 2026, just weeks before the Eryilmaz verdict, a jury convicted Orlando Vilchez Lazo, the man police dubbed the city’s “Rideshare Rapist.” He had cruised the South of Market nightlife district in a car bearing Uber and Lyft decals, picking up women who thought they had hailed him, then driving them elsewhere and raping them — sometimes at knifepoint.
Vilchez Lazo was convicted of 11 felony counts, including kidnapping with intent to commit rape and multiple counts of rape by force, and faces 100 years to life. Asked whether there were victims beyond the four identified — given a multi-year gap in the known attacks — DA Brooke Jenkins answered plainly: “Unfortunately, we don’t know.” The decals were fake. The method was identical to the one that snared the sleeping sister months later.
This is not a San Francisco problem alone. In Boston, Alvin Campbell — now 45 — stood trial in May 2026 on rape, kidnapping, and indecent-assault charges spanning nine women between 2017 and 2019. Prosecutors say he idled outside bars near North Station in a black SUV, posing as an Uber driver to offer rides to intoxicated women. When he was arrested, detectives reported finding video recordings of the assaults. WBUR has documented that Boston police had DNA evidence for years before making an arrest.
In Chicago, police issued public warnings after a fake rideshare driver was accused of sexual assaults in the Old Town and Gold Coast neighborhoods, driving a mid-sized black SUV that matched no ride either victim had ordered. On Long Island, Suffolk County police charged Raul Guaman after a traffic stop turned up 32 cell phones and 16 women’s driver’s licenses; prosecutors allege he posed as a rideshare driver and recorded himself abusing unconscious women, with conduct dating to 2019.
Reminder: before you get in, match the license plate, car make and model, and the driver's photo to your app. A real rideshare driver will never call out to you on the street. If it doesn't match, don't get in.
Accountability here cuts two ways, and we report both. The conviction of Eryilmaz — and of Vilchez Lazo before him — is a win the DA’s office earned, and we credit it. But two serial-style rideshare predators surfacing in the same city within months is also a public-safety signal: nightlife districts where strangers can pose as drivers, unverified, in the gap between last call and a phone’s ride-status screen.
The fix is not only a courtroom verdict after the fact. It is prevention before the car door closes — better-lit pickup zones, app features that are on by default rather than buried in settings, and a culture where checking the plate is as automatic as buckling the seatbelt.
Mayor Daniel Lurie (D) — elected November 2024 on a public-safety platform; oversees SFPD policy and nightlife-district policing.
DA Brooke Jenkins (D) — secured the June 5, 2026 conviction of Eryilmaz and the April 2026 conviction of the “Rideshare Rapist.” Ran on going harder at repeat offenders.
SFPD Special Victims Unit — investigated both cases; the department is the front line on rideshare-impersonation reports.
Uber and Lyft both publish verification guidance, and police in every one of these cities repeat the same advice. None of it is complicated. The danger is that it gets skipped at exactly the moment it matters most — late at night, tired, distracted, eager to get home.
1. Match the plate. Confirm the license plate, car make, model, and color against your app before opening the door. If anything is off, walk away.
2. Make them name you. Don’t announce yourself. Ask “Who are you here to pick up?” A real driver sees your name in their app. A predator does not.
3. Use the PIN. Turn on Uber’s “Verify Your Ride” PIN in safety settings — the driver must enter the 4-digit code your app shows before the trip starts.
4. No one calls out. Drivers are instructed never to shout for riders on the street. If a car calls out to you, it is not your ride.
5. Don’t ride alone if you can help it. Share your trip status with a friend, wait inside until the app says the car has arrived, and sit in the back.
Check Your Ride before you get in: match the license plate, the car's make and model, and your driver's photo to what's in the app. Turn on PIN verification in your safety settings so your driver has to confirm a code before the trip begins.
Rider vigilance is necessary, but it cannot be the whole strategy — victims here did nothing wrong, and the burden should not rest solely on a tired passenger at 2 a.m. The platforms hold tools the public never sees: PIN verification can be on by default, not opt-in; in-app alerts can flag when a car’s GPS path diverges from the booked route; and pickup-zone partnerships with venues can put riders into well-lit, monitored loading areas instead of dark curbs.
Cities have levers too. Marked, staffed rideshare zones outside major nightlife corridors — the model some airports already use — strip away the cover impersonators rely on. Faster information-sharing between police departments would help connect a fake-driver report in one neighborhood to a pattern across the city before it becomes a string of victims. The crime is repeatable because the opening is repeatable. Close the opening.
- 1.San Francisco District Attorney — 'Man Convicted of Rape and Assault of a Sleeping Woman,' June 5, 2026 (Case No. 26001466)
- 2.New York Post / AOL — 'Man posing as Uber driver picks up two sisters, rapes one after she falls asleep in car'
- 3.KRON4 — 'SF man convicted of raping woman who entered wrong car'
- 4.Patch (San Francisco) — 'Driver Who Raped Woman After She Mistook His Car For An Uber Convicted By Bay Area Jury'
- 5.KTVU FOX 2 — 'Phony SF rideshare driver convicted of multiple sexual assaults'
- 6.ABC7 News — 'Serial San Francisco rideshare rapist Orlando Vilchez Lazo convicted, faces more than 100 years'
- 7.CBS San Francisco — 'San Francisco "Rideshare Rapist" convicted in series of rapes of women leaving nightclubs'
- 8.CBS Boston — 'Man Posing As Uber Driver Accused Of Attacking 8 Women In Boston' (Alvin Campbell)
- 9.WBUR — 'Alleged serial rapist goes on trial for assaults of 7 women he offered rides to outside Boston bars,' May 18, 2026
- 10.ABC7 Chicago — 'Police warn of fake rideshare driver accused of sexual assaults in Old Town, Gold Coast'
- 11.ABC7 New York — 'Long Island man allegedly posed as ride share driver, abused unconscious women' (Raul Guaman)
- 12.Uber — Rider Verification (PIN / Verify Your Ride safety feature)
- 13.Uber — Safety Hub (how to verify your driver and vehicle)
- 14.Uber — U.S. Safety Report (sexual assault incident data)