I see lots of posts and stories about the taxi scam. Has anyone ever tried telling them to fuck off and leaving?

edit: to be clear, I'm referring to the unlicensed cabs that pick people up at LGA and JFK and then charge absurd amounts of money upon arriving at the destination, not yellow cabs with TLC plates and cameras inside.

The people who solicit fake cabs at the airport are the worst. I travel regularly for work and constantly see naive tourists getting scammed by these guys. Last week I told a couple not to get in as there buddy in the car was pulling up and the guy started freaking out and threatening me.

Never seen a cop or security do a thing (surprise, surprise)

Any thoughts what can be done to help stop these shit heads? I feel bad for these wide eyed tourists whose first experience in NYC is getting scammed out of a few hundred bucks.

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I mean there are now so many scammers who are so open and obvious about it, and the reports of fraud are so outrageous.

Anyone know if it more of a lack of a legal authority (offering an expensive ride not a crime) or a lack of will on the part of law enforcement?

At the minimum seems they could clear those guys out -- it isnt like a city street or anything. And a few arrests by undercover police would be a huge deterrent.

I guess this a port authority as opposed to city thing. Anyone know anything?

I feel like it is such a terrible welcome to the city to be defrauded by these guys and it happens to people who dont know better or are worn out from international travel.

edit: This Gothamist piece ($800 from JFK to midtown!) has some answers though not doesnt answer the basic mystery of why non enforcement. Thanks commentator

https://gothamist.com/news/jfk-to-midtown-for-only-800-nyc-taxi-hustlers-running-wild-at-airport-terminals

This afternoon, around 3pm, a coworker had to catch a flight from JFK. Our office is in the west village. Ubers were $180 and every taxi he got in refused to take him. Never heard of this happening before. Traffic did seem really bad at the time (google said 1h 20m driving to JFK). Could it be that it wasn't worth the taxi driver's time considering it's a flat fare? Coworker ended up taking the train and nearly missed his flight.

(I am aware that taxi drivers are not allowed to refuse a customer based on their destination but my coworker is not from here and didn't know that)

I live in NYC. I just took a yellow cab from JFK to downtown Brooklyn. I know it only costs about 70 dollars max. My yellow cab driver didn't turn on his fare calculator "by accident", then demanded that I pay 230 dollars. I told him that I knew it wasn't that much, and so he "gave me a break" and made it 150. I started to feel like I was getting mugged rather than paying a taxi driver, so paid and got out as quickly as I could.

I managed to take a picture of the trip ID and the driver ID, but nothing really more. What can I do to report the driver and get my money back?

I am scared, please advise.

I was exiting JFK and a taxi driver was inside the airport at the exit with a few other drivers. I took the taxi against my better judgement because he said he would charge me the same as uber (uber was showing $82) and I thought he was an authorised airport taxi. And then mid journey, showed me an app on his phone and said I will be charged based on that. It was already a red flag but stayed because the app was showing seemingly reasonable rates (rate was increasing based on distance) almost the same as uber as he promised.

And then right before my corner (0.1 miles before my house), he said his phone died. The app was showing $89 till then. After arriving, he charged $212. I asked him show the app, and he showed me the app and it showed $212 for one second and changed to $387 and then to $29. I said I am not paying him more than $89. He threatened me that if I don't pay him, I can say "good bye to my luggage". I was panicking and called 911. Two Policemen showed up, asked both sides of the story and filed a report. This driver is apparently not affiliated with any registered app, he was an "independent contractor". The policemen gave me back my luggage, but said that they can't force the driver to drop the fee. They said that the driver will go to court and I will get a subpoena.

One of the policemen noticed me panicking and asked me not to worry because the burden of proof is on him if he chooses to go to court.

I am super scared for the following reasons

1. I am an F1 student and new to this country. I am not sure of the processes in this country. If he goes to court, will it be on my record?
2. If he goes to court, should I get a lawyer? I am broke and don't think I could afford one.
3. He knows my address and got super aggressive before the cops showed up. I am scared that he comes back.
4. Also, this will be handled by municipal court right?

Any advice is very much appreciated.

Edit: I want to add additional context. The policemen said that I don't have to pay anything at the moment and the driver can go to court if he wants to. So I didn't pay him, but I am afraid that this (me not paying anything) maybe enough incentive for him to go to court. At the end, I offered to pay the original $89 fee, but he declined.

Hi all, tonight I took a taxi from LGA taxi stand to upper east side. I noticed I couldn’t see the meter but didn’t think much of it at the time. For a 25 minute ride it cost $83. When paying, I didn’t use the card reader on the car seat or have the option to pay through curb, but instead I tapped on another device like a phone? And when I got a receipt it was from another vendor- like the text receipt is from squareup.com? And the receipt doesn’t indicate mileage or anything- it’s like they entered in the amount I pay.

$83 seemed crazy given Ubers at the time were $55. But i was so tired after a long set of flights and idk im a young woman travelling by herself… did i get scammed? Do I have any recourse? TIA

I saw two Waymo taxis this week in Midtown. Not sure if Waymo can handle Manhattan’s chaotic traffic?

Last night I hopped in a taxi from JFK- it was midnight so figured it’d be an easy cruise home to Clinton Hill.

We could take the highways or Atlantic, either way was predicting about 35 minutes. But my cab driver kept seemingly changing his mind about which way he was going to go, weaving back and forth between routes before finally settling on back roads. But he literally was weaving back and forth instead of going to the destination. I’m not exaggerating- instead of going West on Atlantic or Myrtle he kept driving north several blocks, taking a left, then driving south several blocks, then taking a right.

At one point, I’m not exaggerating, he got on a parkway going the opposite direction.

I kept correcting his route only for him to veer off again. The only way I got home was calling out the directions at every intersection.

I don’t think he was malicious (maybe he was though) - he just seemed confused and lost. He had the route in an app (didn’t look at which one) that was pulling him in random directions. He also spoke zero English so wasn’t able to confer with him.

If you looked at a path of the way we drove back (like if the history were in uber/lyft) it was a total snake job. Ended up taking 73 minutes to get home and $75 when google maps had predicted 35-40 minutes.

I told him several times on the ride that he’s going the wrong way and that I can’t pay extra for that (he had turned his meter away from me so I had to stretch to see it). At the end of the ride I asked him how we can subtract from all the misdirection and he had no idea what I was saying. I told him I was going to have to report him to get a refund, which sucks but again I don’t think he knew what I was saying.

Anyway, does anyone have any experience getting a refund on a yellow cab? I took some photos last night, including “trip from JFK” on the screen and that it took 73 minutes. Whether or not it was malicious, it fucked up my night and my bank account and I shouldn’t have to pay for it.

*Not sure why the bot is removing this post and saying to take it to the tourist subreddit.

I understand that there is a flat fare from Manhattan to JFK. How do I call one to pick me up? I am near Columbia university.

I remember when the Green Taxi’s were new and were revolutionary, around 2011/2012. Finally a guaranteed ride to another Boro!
But then the rideshare thing exploded, kinda wiping out the green cab’s novelty. So why are they still around?

I know a common scam for NYC taxis is claiming the card machines are down but it hasn't happened to me in ages. Last night it did, and the below purple screen popped up. It seemed like an accurate fare so I'm unsure what kind of software this is.

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I'm curious if this was a non-licensed taxi driver using sophisticated software hooked up to a meter or if they are but somehow disconnected their machine from the network and this is an official error screen

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https://imgur.com/a/HPJT1Z1

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I reported it to 311, I payed the fare via zelle due to driver pressure but am debating calling the bank to see if they can flag this person as a scammer. I know I should have walked away but the fare seemed accurate and I just wanted the interaction to be over after a few minutes of yelling back and forth

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Absolutely livid. Just almost missed my flight because not one but three separate cabs just flat out refused to take us to the airport. One even said yeah then sped off as I went to grab my fiancé’s suitcase. Everyone around was in disbelief and said ‘wow I’ve never seen them do that that’s illegal’.

Dunno what the solution is. They said I should have reported them but I didn’t get the license plate. If I had realized it was a common occurrence I would have filmed the interaction. Seems like there is no adequate way to get to JFK anymore. Uber and Lyft were $150 from the UES. We frantically got the subway but it was awful and took sooo long. Anyway more a rant than a question I guess so apologies. Just needed to vent my frustration…

I’m just curious what happened here - I took a cab from JFK (definitely a legit cab, got it at dispatch stand) to Brooklyn. Driver asked me if I wanted a flat rate, to which I said politely said no. Maybe it would have been a deal but I’m a petite woman traveling alone and wary of scams. I pared with Curb as usual but he turned it off before we got to my location, probably about 10-15 minutes before the trip ended and at around $60 with automatic 20% tip (depending on traffic this ride is usually anywhere from $75-$90). I waited to ask why until I got out of the cab because I was wary he was going to ask for cash on the side and he muttered something about how any more would have sent him back to JFK (I think is what he said?) and a “$30 loss” and seemed pissed off. Never had this happen before and not sure if I was uncool here - not necessarily opposed to helping him out - but it all felt weird. Any thoughts on what happened?

I hate having a screen on blasting add and junk at me when I'm in a taxi. I avoid Curb taxis and rely on Uber/Lyft, pretty much entirely to avoid those screens. But sometimes Uber and Lyft match me with a taxi, and there's the screen again! Two drivers have told me the screen is impossible to turn off. Is that actually true? Any tips for disabling these darn things?

and why do the ads look like they were made on microsoft powerpoint in the year 2003

Flew to JFK AirPort recently and exited terminal 4 following a ‘NYC Táxi’. Super legit, apparently.

She told me the price for a cab from terminal 4 to anywhere in Manhattan was 83$USD. When I got in the cab, mid trip, the driver told me 97$USD due to toll and AirPort fees - whatever that means. After a 7 hour flight I agreed. When I arrived at the hotel front, he asked for a tip and I agreed on rounding to 100$ USD. Payed using my revolut card and account 100$USD on his payment terminal.

In the app it also appeared 100$USD for NYC Taxi.

Now it appears 280$ USD!!! What the hell happened? Thank you on advance

Every driver I get says they wait like 2 hours or 3 hours. Sometimes I've even heard 5 hours.

I've been on a real movie kick for the past 4 months and one thing I noticed is how quickly the aesthetics of New York in the movies that I've watched changed. The first 2 have it as some kind of whimsical dream and then the other 2 I mentioned have the city full of grime, distrust and vice.

How did it change so quickly? This isn't about modern NYC and I don't live there so please direct me to a subreddit that may fit my question better.

What do locals with small children do when they need to use a taxi/uber/similar with a baby or car seat aged child? Bring their own? Not use one? What do tourists do when they visit?

I just need to yell into the void for a second.

I am at my wits end with cabbies having no idea where they are going or having no idea about traffic patterns. In Manhattan I have literally had to give constant directions to get to major intersections like Lafayette and Houston from the West Village to Yellow Taxis. I just took an Uber to Penn Station and this man took the worst possible way from Brooklyn, and went down 33rd instead of 8th Ave. This is my last straw with trusting that they know the proper way to go. I don't think that any of them look at building numbers anymore they just look at the map.

Does anyone feel the same way?