Toronto resident Neil Hetherington learned the hard way: if you feel like you’re being swindled out of money, you probably are.
The CEO for Daily Bread Food Bank says he was scammed $2,500 at the beginning of the month by a fake Co-op taxi cab driver.
Despite the warning signs he spotted — there was no taxi driver identification number, the driver didn’t want cash, and demanded he hand over his card to slot in the machine himself — it wasn’t hard to be convinced to bat that aside in the heat of the moment.
“I just grabbed the receipt, put it in my pocket and I wished him a very Merry Christmas,” said Hetherington, noting the even the receipt came out odd, charging him €29.
Hetherington says he realized what happened after getting a notification of suspicious activity on his card shortly after. He says he’s thankful his bank later restored the money to his account — it didn’t have to since he willingly handed over his PIN number during a transaction, even though it turned out to be fraudulent.
Now, he and other taxi scam victims hope increased awareness can help others learn from their experience. After the incident, Hetherington says he lowered his withdrawal limit and marked his credit card to help him easily identify it.
“There’s a whole host of things that we can do to make sure that this type of fraud doesn’t happen again,” said Hetherington.
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