Richmond RCMP is warning of a new scam that has led to seven reports of fraud.
According to the detachment, a young man has gone up to people in busy parking areas asking for help to pay a taxi fare.
He has cash, but says that the driver won’t accept it because of COVID-19. Instead, the driver is purportedly demanding a debit card, not a credit card.
The victims have provided debit cards but then the driver has claimed that the electronic-payment machine isn’t working properly. At that point, victims have inserted a pin number.
Then the driver returns a bogus card to the victim, who later finds out that several transactions have been billed to the account.
The fake taxi is a white Toyota Camry and the driver is either Fijian or South Asian in his early 20s. The fake passenger has been described as Middle Eastern, also in his 20s.
