Imagine popping your debit or credit card into an ATM the day after taking a cab ride, not being able to withdraw cash and then realizing it’s because the card you’re trying to use is not your own.
Toronto Police allege that’s exactly what has been happening in the city for more than a year to hundreds of unsuspecting victims who have lost millions of dollars.
And an ongoing fraud investigation into the taxi fare scam has so far led to the arrests of six people on more than 260 charges.
“We’re in the millions of a loss when you put them all together,” Det.-Const. Kristin Thomas said Thursday of the cash defrauded from passengers after riding in cabs belonging to several of the city’s licensed taxi companies.
Cabbies have allegedly been handing passengers an altered point-of-sale machine and when the customer tries to pay the fare, they are met with an “error” or “problem” message when entering their PIN.
“The transaction would not process properly and the driver would ask for the machine back to rectify the problem,” Thomas said, alleging the cabbie then removes the customer’s card and surreptitiously replaces it with another card from the same bank.
After completing what they believe is a “proper transaction,” the customer removes the “switched” card and exits the taxi.
Thomas claims the taxi driver would then head to a bank associated with the customer’s card and use it in an ATM along with the PIN captured by the point-of-sale machine.
“The customer’s funds (were) depleted from their accounts fraudulently,” she alleged, adding passengers have no idea they have been victimized until they are notified by their bank or they try to use the swapped card.
Police executed search warrants at three addresses on Dec. 19, 2018, and allegedly seized a point-of-sale machine, financial documents, mail and personal banking information relating to the identity theft victims.
Four men, a woman, and a boy were arrested.
Charged are Toronto residents Alex Ghakhar, 22, Adam Ghakhar 22, Mohammad Sarwar, 25, Tracy Begley, 48, John Alexander Mackenzie, 24, and a 16-year-old boy who can’t be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
The accused faces a slew of charges such as fraud over $5,000, fraud under $5,000, identity theft, unauthorized use of debit or credit card information, possession of property obtained by crime and possession of proceeds obtained by crime.
Thomas said the accused are all known to each other, but she provided no further details on the relationships between them.
While she did not identify the cab companies that employed the suspected fraudsters, Thomas did say the taxi providers have been co-operating with investigators.
She cautioned that the alleged taxi fare scam remains “very active” in the GTA and police receive reports that fit the pattern several times a week.
Thomas warned taxi riders to protect their financial information.
“Keep your eyes on your debit card or visa at all times,” she said.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 416-808-5500 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477).
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