Fraud's fraud. A taxi company could do the same thing to a rival.

Why? You can similarly request a cab and cancel it. Rival cab companies have surely done this for as long as rival cab companies have existed. The difference is cabs don't always show up, they "cancel" on riders all the time. Gotta love taxi regulations!

Or why fraud is illegal.

I see the Uber people have gotten to this post. I guess I don't understand how Uber/Lyft is any different from a standard Taxi company. Me, I'll stick with the bus or Car2Go if this is the way they act.

We may get to see why we have unsubstantiated libel regulations.