I thought I was savvy enough not to fall for a scam. Sadly — embarrassingly — I was wrong

They say people who fall for scams typically feel foolish and blame themselves for not seeing the red flags along the way. Having been victimized myself, I can now say that’s pretty much true.
It happened a couple of weeks ago. After seeing a movie at TIFF a friend and I hailed what looked like a cab. It turned out it wasn’t a cab at all and the driver took me for more than $1,400.
Here’s what happened. The car we flagged down had a taxi-style dome light. The driver was unusually chatty and said I’d have to use a credit card because it was his last trip of the night (which upon reflection makes no sense — first red flag).
At our destination I tried to use my credit card but it wouldn’t go through and the driver asked me to let him try (second red flag). He said there was a problem with his payment machine so I should use a debit card (third red flag). It was pitch black and the driver turned on the light for only a moment so I could input my PIN, then asked me to hand him the card and machine so he could check (fourth and fifth red flags).
The next morning I tried to use my credit card and discovered I had a similar-looking card with another name. The driver had switched the debit card as well and stolen my PIN by using a rigged pay machine. By the time I sorted things out with Visa and TD Bank, the scammer had hit my account with three transactions adding up to $1,471.
It turns out the “taxi scam” is depressingly common. Maureen Holloway wrote about a very similar incident this week on her “Women of Ill Repute” Substack publication. And Toronto police have logged 493 taxi scam incidents so far this year with losses amounting to $914,000.
I suppose it’s at least 494 incidents now and the damage is a bit higher, adding mine to the total. And who knows how many others don’t bother to report at all? After all, you do feel foolish. How could I have not picked up on so many red flags along the way?
Det. David Coffey of the Toronto police Financial Crimes Unit, who gave me the stats on taxi scams, was kind enough to say I shouldn’t be too hard on myself. “You’re downtown, it’s busy, it’s dark, you’re not as observant as you might be,” he said. “Don’t be embarrassed. It can happen to anyone.”
When you hit a certain age, you’re also bombarded with warnings that older people (“vulnerable seniors” is the usual phrasing) often fall for scams. According to Det. Coffey, though, that doesn’t apply to this kind of swindle. “In this scam,” he told me, “it’s mostly young people who’ve been out drinking.”
What I fell for is actually a throwback to the original taxi scam. Lately there’s been a twist on the plot; people are approached by someone who says a cab driver won’t accept cash and offer money in return for using your debit card. The fake driver steals their PIN and switches cards.
Toronto police put out an alert about that last month. Det. Coffey says that may have warned enough people so the scammers are reverting to their old method — the one that got me.
It turns out anyone can buy a fake taxi dome light on Amazon for less than $40. Coffey says police have asked Amazon to stop selling them, but no success so far. And rigged payment machines are sold and traded among criminals.
The most important thing, though, is public awareness. Coffey offers some tips — ones that in retrospect seem awfully obvious. Make sure any “cab” has a taxi license plate on the rear. Never lose control of your cards, even for a moment. Double-check you’ve got your own cards before you get out of the cab. Be vigilant.
In the end, I got off lightly. My bank looked into the matter and quickly reversed the charges. But I can’t shake that feeling of being had. More than the money, the scammer made off with a bit of my trust in the world.