Europe 1 with AFP 20:21 p.m., April 06, 2023

Since the beginning of the year, a dozen people, mainly of Asian origin, have been scammed by fake taxis. Pulling their targets into the terminal, the scammers had managed to obtain official taxi payment terminals and had rigged their display.

Several tourists were shocked to discover on their bank account that their ride from the Paris airport of Charles-de-Gaulle, costing about twenty euros, had been charged 2,000 euros by fake taxi drivers. Since the beginning of the year, a dozen people, mainly of Asian origin, have filed a complaint with the border police, but several other travelers would have been victims of the same scam, an airport source told AFP.

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Four drivers arrested

In transit, they would not have reported themselves to the French authorities, because they would have realized the fraudulent overbilling only after leaving the country, said the source. After investigation, four drivers were arrested Monday morning by border police.

Folding their targets into the terminal, they had managed to obtain official taxi payment terminals and had rigged their display, blurring their passengers' ratings with two additional zeros. The scammers' equipment and vehicles were seized. The four arrested were summoned to the court of Bobigny in Seine-Saint-Denis on May 22.