Scammed by Taxi Driver - what to do?

regency_man

Hi,

I've fallen foul of what is probably a quite common scam. On a recent trip to Budapest I took a taxi from my hotel to the airport. The cost was 8000 HUF (about £22). On arrival I asked to pay by card, the taxi driver took my card and presented me the card machine to enter my PIN. He processed the payment then handed my back my card, the credit card slip and a hand-written receipt for 8000 HUF. All good I thought.

When I arrived home I checked my credit card statement to find a spurious transaction for £228 on my card. On closer inspection this was for 80,000 HUF at the exact time and date of my taxi journey. Basically he charged me ten times what he should have done. I checked the credit card slip he gave me with the written receipt to find it had been ripped it off above where the transaction amount was.

I called my card provider to dispute the transaction, however they said they would not pursue the dispute with Visa because the fact I entered the PIN it counts as my authorization of the transaction. I explained that the taxi driver never showed me the amount on the machine before asking me to enter my PIN, but they said it was not important, entering my PIN authorizes the transaction.

To his credit, the agent on the phone then tried to assist me in locating the details of the taxi driver/company to try and dispute with them, however the paperwork appears to be deliberately misleading or vague. There is no identifying information on the hand written receipt - and the card transaction is made to a processing company called 'Impeller KFT', for which the only information we can find is the Hungarian equivalent of a Company's House entry.

Any thoughts on what I should do next? Can I make a section 75 claim on this?

[Deleted User]

Get confirmation from your card provider that they will not process a chargeback and then escalate to FOS.

regency_man

So I called MBNA again and asked specifically if I could request a charge-back due to the clerical error - to which the agent responded "you cannot request a charge-back, we have to investigate it internally and the result of our internal investigation might be to request a charge-back from VISA, but you cannot request this yourself". So now, as I understand it, my transaction has been marked as 'In Dispute' which means I do not have to pay it and will not incur interest on it. They have submitted a 'request for documents' to the vendor, which they have up to 35 days to respond to. After which MBNA will contact me again to discuss 'next steps'.

Does that sound about right?

Westminster

It's not automatically a scam.

It can quite conceivably be a pair of unfortunate mistakes (1. the driver presses an extra 0, 2. you fail to check the figure yourself ... either before entering the pin or once you received the slip from the card machine)

Samsung_Note2

Sounds like the OP failed to check the amount being charged and was scammed...however id say its no ones fault but the OP for not checking.

Harsh as that sounds its how it is.

jonesMUFCforever

I think that the investigation will find in favour of the OP - the taxi firm will need to prove that the fare of 80000 was correct which IMO they will not be able to do so.
My guess is that they do this all the time knowing that some people won't check or query the transactions.

[Deleted User]

This is why (even when I had a Credit Card) I've always paid taxis with cash.

regency_man

I agree I may be at fault, and I certainly am not trying to cheat the taxi driver out of his 8000HUF fare. However the way the credit receipt was ripped above where the amount should be is indicative to me of foul play. Could be a coincidence sure.

I have also asked a Hungarian friend to try and resolve this with the taxi company, but he is also struggling to understand which company took the fare from the receipts.

AllieKat

That is a strong indication to me of it being an intentional scam. Thank you for the warning about MBNA.

Samsung_Note2

regency_man wrote: »

I agree I may be at fault, and I certainly am not trying to cheat the taxi driver out of his 8000HUF fare. However the way the credit receipt was ripped above where the amount should be is indicative to me of foul play. Could be a coincidence sure.

I have also asked a Hungarian friend to try and resolve this with the taxi company, but he is also struggling to understand which company took the fare from the receipts.

Only at Fault for not physical seeing the amount charged and excepting it..ive done it and sure plenty others have.

Could be a common thing to massively over charge..after all how many of us do actually bother checking,esp when in a hurry.

Had a Taxi pick me up in Manila International airport..asked driver if he knew a Hotel and the area etc..yeah all good and price agreed,an hour into a 30 minute journey he had "forgotten" where the hotel was (bum was twitching over time lol) but suddenly remembered when i offer him double fare,two mins later we pull up..he charges me double what we agreed and i paid him a quarter for being a con man.:j

Atletico

It!!!8217;s harsh to criticise MBNA. They have investigated and determined that it was a PIN authorised transaction for 80,000 HUF. Who is to say that it wasn!!!8217;t a taxi/minibus/limousine transfer that could cost that much? The fact is the OP entered their PIN accepting the amount that in all honesty would have been on the machine at the point of sale.