A 14-year-old boy has been arrested in an ongoing taxi rip-off investigation, Toronto police say.
The arrest was made after a member of the general public reported a taxi allegedly finishing up the rip-off at a mall car parking zone in the Markham Road and Lawrence Avenue East space on Monday, say police.
That’s the place they say they situated the boy and the automobile. The boy has been since charged with possession of proceeds of crime over $5,000.
CBC Toronto reported on one sufferer of such a rip-off Tuesday, who posted on TikTok about how she was approached by a younger boy asking for assist to pay his cab fare, claiming his taxi would not take money.
Saja Kilani mentioned she agreed to assist the boy, giving her card to the motive force solely to discover a totally different one handed again with out her title on it.
As a part of the rip-off, police say a taxi will park in a high traffic space. One particular person poses as a driver, one other as a buyer. The two may have an obvious argument over the taxi not accepting money cost, and an unsuspecting sufferer will assist the so-called buyer by paying with their card.
While the sufferer is distracted, the suspect will swap their card with one other. Meanwhile, the point-of-sale terminal will report the sufferer’s card knowledge and pin quantity, in order that the suspects could make future fraudulent transactions with the cardboard.
The boy, who can’t be recognized beneath the Youth Criminal Justice Act, is ready to look in court docket on Dec. 14, police say.
The information launch doesn’t point out the arrest of any others concerned in the alleged rip-off.
Police are reminding the general public to not go away their playing cards unattended in a point-of-sale terminal, pay attention to taxi numbers and drivers’ identification, to not make funds for an unknown particular person along with your card, guarantee the cardboard returned to you is yours and canopy your fingers when getting into your pin quantity.
Anyone who has info, or believes they’ve been a sufferer of a taxi rip-off, is being urged to contact police at 416-808-4300, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), or at www.222tips.com.