A fake taxi scam has popped up in Winnipeg, prompting a warning from police, after unsuspecting victims in other Canadian cities were bilked out of millions of dollars.
City police have received about a dozen reports recently of people being defrauded or sightings of vehicles with fake taxi signs outside shopping malls or other locations, spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon said.
“We can confirm it is a common variation of a scam that’s been seen in other provinces,” she said Wednesday.
“We really want people to become aware of it. There are so many scams out there, and they evolve very quickly.”
In this variation, con artists pose as taxi drivers and passengers in a bid to drain money from victims’ bank accounts.
With a fake “taxi” sign atop their vehicle, they roam high-traffic areas, such as mall parking lots, to look for potential victims.
A fraudster pretending to be a passenger gets out and approaches a target, telling them the taxi doesn’t accept cash.
The potential victim is asked to use their debit card to pay for the cab fare in exchange for the same amount in cash.
Police said the con artists use card-skimming techniques to steal card data, including personal identification numbers (PINs), allowing them to withdraw far more money than the supposed fare amount.
The Winnipeg Police Service’s financial crimes unit is looking for suspects in local incidents. The city’s vehicles for hire office is working with taxi and ride-hailing companies to raise awareness.
There are straightforward ways to tell if a cab is legitimate.
All legitimate taxi companies accept cash, McKinnon said. Licensed taxis have a name decal on their doors, and three-digit taxi identification numbers inside and outside.
McKinnon said people should never allow strangers to take their debit or credit card and never let their card out of sight.
Suspicious transactions should be reported to police or the city’s 311 service, the WPS said.
McKinnon said confirmed sightings of a fake taxi should be reported to police.
Police in several Ontario and Alberta cities have warned of the scam recently. Police in Guelph, Ont., said one scheme used a child, possibly 11 to 14 years old, to defraud four people Friday.
In one case, the child approached a man outside a business and claimed a cab driver wouldn’t accept cash. The victim gave his debit card to the driver and was handed a receipt and a card he later realized was not his.
Guelph police said the man then discovered $3,000 had been withdrawn from his bank account.
Police agencies in the Toronto area worked together in 2020 to bust an organized fake taxi operation that was believed to have defrauded more than 200 people out of more than $2 million.
“It has been happening in the past, but not to this level or as significant as this year,” Marc Andre Way, president of the Ottawa-based Canadian Taxi Association, said.
Way could not speak to regulations in Winnipeg, but he said “relaxed” enforcement or bylaws in some cities allowed this type of fraud to “proliferate.”
“There’s not a lot of checks and balances in place,” he said.
Fraudsters have moved from city to city in Ontario, although there are “copycats,” Way added.
“Once you try a scam and it works, you just move on and keep doing it,” he said.
In response to a rash of incidents, the taxi association asked Amazon to halt the sale of generic “taxi” roof light signs, which anyone can purchase on the U.S.-based retailer’s website.
Amazon refused, saying the lights are legal to sell in Canada. Some that were for sale on Amazon’s website had a magnetic base and a power cord that plugs into a socket inside the vehicle.
“Unfortunately, like many products, these products can be misused,” a spokesperson wrote in an email. “Amazon will continue to monitor the situation and adapt to any developments on regulation and compliance of these items.”
The taxi association is contacting transportation ministries and municipalities to ask them to look at their rules regarding how taxi and ride-hailing vehicles are identified.
Way said ministries or municipalities should require roof signs to be registered or have specific information, not simply the word “taxi.”
“We need regulations where roof signs are not generic and not easy to replicate,” he said.
chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca
Chris Kitching
Reporter
Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.
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