A Richmond taxi company has its debit card payment system back online after being scammed out of more than $8,000.
Garden City Cabs had to refuse debit cards for several days after thieves, posing as customers, managed to use a default password on the machine.
Between June 12 and 14, the crooks awarded themselves a $900 refund on nine occasions, unbeknown to the driver each time.
On the 14th, the cab company realized something was amiss, but it wasnt until Monday they discovered what exactly had happened and then they alerted police.
The thieves were clever by using debit cards and not credit cards, because the credit card company could reverse the charge when it was found to be wrong, said Garden City Cabs manager, Ashiana Khan.
But in those days, we also lost a lot of business, especially from tourists, who dont usually carry a lot of cash.
Police said in one incident there were two males involved and in others there was only one.
Were trying to determine if the three are connected, said Richmond RCMPs Cpl. Sherrdean Derkatch.
Unfortunately, surveillance footage is not available due to technical issues and were still trying to identify the people responsible.
In each case, the scammers told the driver their card was declined, allowing them to input the $900.
What we recommend is for businesses to simply change the default password on the pin pads, because that's likely what the problem is," added Derkatch.
The cab company has now deleted the refund option on their machines.
