Carpooling and ridesharing arrangements are being carried out on chat apps such as Telegram.

They have become increasingly popular in Singapore, as such services provide greater convenience and cost-effectiveness for riders and drivers who state where they are heading to and how much one is willing to pay and be paid.

However, such transport arrangements are highly informal and unregulated, as they rely on goodwill and good faith actors, with both riders and drivers essentially avoiding monkey business for rides to work out.

But it appears such transport arrangements has been tainted by one bad faith actor.

An anonymous NTU Confessions Facebook post on Oct. 21 by a woman claimed that she was molested by the driver who used Ride Kakis, a peer-to-peer ride sharing platform mainly used by Nanyang Technological University students.

Some context

Ride Kakis started as an initiative by NTU students, and the channel's user base has grown to nearly 4,000 members.

The catch is that any member of the public can also use the platform.

Rider got molested by non-NTU driver

According to the NTU Confessions post, the victim was involved in an incident in mid-October, where a driver who was not from NTU, offered a ride to the victim via Ride Kakis.

The driver then brought the victim to a secluded carpark, and molested her.

The victim wrote that she managed to report the driver to the police, and got him arrested.

The driver reportedly tried to claim that he was "trying to make friends" with the victim, but it appeared that the case made against him was not the first.

Wanted to warn other NTU students

The victim wrote in the post that she was "initially quite traumatised" by the experience, but wanted others to be aware of rogue drivers.

She wrote:

"For those doubting this is real, don’t. I’m really not trying to stir shit or anything.”

The case will be reported to the school, the post said, but a warning via NTU Confessions will go a longer way to warn others.

The victim advised other students to ask for proper identification of riders or drivers before getting into the car, as verification of one's identity on Ride Kakis was not compulsory.

On Ride Kakis, one only has to provide an alias and Telegram username:

Ride Kakis suspended indefinitely

As of Oct. 21, 11:38pm, the Telegram channel has been suspended until further notice.

It is unclear whether the alleged molestation incident resulted in the suspension of the channel.

Top image via NTU Kakis/Telegram, NTU Confessions/Facebook