Guelph Police investigating multiple reports of fake taxi

Guelph Police are investigating four reports of males in a fake taxi defrauding Good Samaritans.

According to police, at around 8 p.m. Friday a Guelph man was going into a Woodlawn Road West business when he was approached by a child. The child told the man he was trying to pay for a taxi but the cabbie wouldn’t accept cash. The child asked the man to pay for his fare with a debit card, and promised to refund him in cash.

The man agreed and was handed a receipt and a debit card. He later realized the card wasn’t his. He reached out to his bank and discovered his card had been used to withdraw $3,000, police said.

Then at around 10:15 p.m. Saturday, a Guelph woman was in her car at a Woodlawn Road West business when she was approached by a child and told the same story.

“She paid the fare but a short time later realized she had been given someone else’s card and was able to lock her bank accounts before sustaining any loss,” police said in a media release.

On Sunday, police were contacted by a different Guelph woman who reported she was waiting outside a business near Edinburgh Road South and Stone Road West Saturday evening when a similar vehicle approached her. After she paid the fare, the males kept her card and withdrew almost $1,500 from her account, according to police.

“Also Sunday, a third woman reported a similar interaction with the males approximately 9:30 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot of a Stone Road West business. She later discovered the males had kept her card and withdrawn almost $1,000 from her account.”

In all cases the driver was described as a brown-skinned male in his 20s with a thin build. He possibly had a beard and was wearing a mask. The child was possibly white, between 11 and 14-years-old with dark hair and wearing a blue shirt, grey and white shorts and black and red shoes. The car was described as a white Audi with an orange and white taxi sign on the roof.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Guelph Police Service at 519-824-1212 or leave an anonymous message for Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).