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

• Published date: 24 March 2023
• Publication title: DublinLive (Ireland)

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...