A Dublin man has spoken out about his phone and €1300 being stolen in a taxi scam and is urging others to be careful.
"Matthew" (not his real name) spoke to RTE Liveline today about the ordeal, which happened over the weekend. He left a pub in Ranelagh late on Saturday night/early Sunday morning after socialising with some friends and tried to order a taxi on the apps but they kept failing or cancelling.
He explained: "I got a bit frustrated and decided to walk home. On my way, a taxi beeped at me and I thought it's been a long night so I may as well hop in.
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"There was a plate there so I assumed it was a taxi. As I hopped in, a girl was getting out. Looking back, it seems a bit unusual.
"Anyway, the driver proceeded to take me close to my destination and then claimed he didn't know where my address was. He asked to have a look at my phone on Google Maps and shortly after, he dropped it into the passenger side footwell. He claimed he had a bad back and couldn't get it."
Matthew said the driver asked him to get out to retrieve it. Once he was out of the taxi, the driver drove off with his phone still inside.
"That was bad enough, but unfortunately my wife was out at her work Christmas party staying in a hotel so I had no way to contact anyone to cancel the phone or contact my banks or anything," he said.
"I woke up in the morning to find that money had been taken from three of my bank accounts and passwords were changed. It was an absolute nightmare to be honest with you. About €1300 was gone."
Matthew described the incident as "an experienced scam" and said others have come forward with similar experiences. "My wife has an Instagram page with her twin sister and she posted a public service announcement the next day and about five or six men contacted them directly saying the same thing had happened to them," he said.
"There were slight variations. Some people were pickpocketed by the girl as she was leaving the cab. One fella said there was a guy in the back of the taxi cab, they drove him off to an area and demanded his money, pin code and all of his details.
"It's amazing. It all happened on the same weekend as well."
Matthew said he notified gardai about the incident. "They were absolutely fantastic, to be honest with you. They've taken it extremely seriously and have contacted all of the individuals involved.
"The difficulty is with trying to identify these people. They picked me up in a spot outside of Ranelagh where they knew there were no cameras, they dropped me off at a spot where there's no lights or cameras."
Matthew said he wanted to share his story so as to make others aware and hopefully prevent something similar from happening again.
He said: "I'm a very trusting person and I think maybe a little bit of caution (is needed). If someone doesn't have their own Google Maps, take a bit of warning. If there's someone else in the taxi... that's a big flag, big warning.
"But I suppose the thing is, it's such a shame that there is such a lack of available ways home at the moment, taxis and buses and things like that. The alternative is walking home on your own and that's not safe for everyone.
"There's no quick answer to it but I suppose coming up to Christmas, maybe be a little careful."
Matthew said he has been refunded from one of the three bank accounts that was targeted and is hopeful about the other two.
He added: "99.9% of taxi drivers that I've ever come across are fantastic and would do anything they can to get your goods back to you if you leave them behind. It's just unfortunate that this has soured it a bit."
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