Man’s fake taxi warning after scammers steal phone and attempt to hack into accounts

The man, who wished to remain anonymous, took a taxi home from Harcourt Street late at night and became uneasy after noticing someone else was sitting in the

• • 15:03, 24 MAR 2023

A man has opened up about his experience with theft in a taxi after alleged scammers tried to access his bank accounts.

The man, who wished to remain anonymous, took a taxi home from Harcourt Street late on March 16 but became uneasy after noticing someone else was sitting in the backseat. He quickly realised that the vehicle was heading in the wrong direction and later got into a heated discussion with the driver.

The driver asked him for his mobile phone in order to input his address directly from Google Maps. The man was then ejected from the backseat of the car by the other passenger once the phone was in the driver’s hands, before the vehicle sped off.

The man told Dublin Live: “I should have known something was up but I was told the other person was being dropped off. I ran after them briefly after I hit the ground but they were soon gone.”

He was luckily familiar with the area he ended up in and made his way to a pub, where he was able to order another taxi home. However, he realised the next day that his friends had been contacted for money off his stolen phone.

The man luckily has access to his Google Maps history, which he hopes will assist Gardai in tracking down the taxi. He decided to wait and report the incident on St Patrick’s Day morning but received a shock update from his friends when he woke up.

He added: “My friends were being contacted asking for money- unfortunately some people were overly kind and sent it. We ran down to an ATM after reporting what had happened at Dundrum Garda Station and withdrew everything.”

Time stamps showed there were attempts to access his bank account after the money had been withdrawn. The man also cancelled his Revolut account out of an abundance of caution.

The man explained that the robbery has left him uneasy about travelling in a taxi on his own. He said he would now only book a taxi via a registered app that shows the car registration.

He added: ” I was in a taxi a while after and my friend mentioned what had happened to me- the driver was extremely defensive about the whole thing, but he acknowledged that it was an issue. There are a few bad eggs painting a poor picture of the whole industry and unfortuntately there’s not a lot you can do about it.”