London police are appealing to the public for information as they continue to investigate a series of reported fraud incidents earlier this month involving a fake taxi.
Since first publicizing their investigation earlier this week, police said Thursday that they had been made aware of additional cases involving the alleged scammers, bringing the total number of incidents to more than 35.
In addition, police stated that its now believed at least two fake taxis were in operation at the same time in the city during the first week of January.
In the incidents, police say the suspects were observed operating a silver Nissan Altima as well as a black Nissan Altima, both with a fake taxi sign on the roof.
In each case, police say the suspect would approach a member of the public while near the fake taxi or after exiting, claiming that the cabbie wouldn’t take their cash because of the Omicron variant.
After asking the victim to help using their debit card, the suspect would promise to pay back the money and display a quantity of cash. Police say the victim would then pay for the fare using a debit machine provided to them.
Police say once the fare was paid, the suspect would then hand the cash to the victim, while the driver would hand back a receipt and a lookalike debit card.
Later on, the victim would learn that their account had been cleaned of a large sum of money — between $1,000 and $13,000 — and that the card they were given wasn’t theirs.
As of Jan. 10, police say a total of at least $100,000 had been defrauded from victims as part of the ruse.
Police say they haven’t received any additional reports since that date, but note that criminals continually update their methods and techniques.
One of the suspects involved is described as a male, aged 18 to 20, wearing a puffy jacket, Timberland boots and black hat.
The second suspect, also male, is approximately 40 years of age and was wearing all black clothing, a black hat and a medical mask.
“The London Police Service is encouraging citizens to remain vigilant to with respect to security of financial documents and access to electronic financial services,” police said in a statement.
“Members of the London Police Service Financial Crime Unit are interested in speaking with anyone who may have information related to this string of frauds.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact London police or Crime Stoppers.
Comments