LICENCE HOLDERS TO THE RESCUE!!


Yes, we’ve already set out an Unsung Heroes section in our Year End Review, but this is a special addition and mention for all those members of our trade who, through keeping their eyes and ears open, have saved some of their regular customers - and some not- so-regulars - from losing a fortune in yet another type of scam that is going around.


The shame of it all is that in “this day and age”, as some of us seniors are used to saying, all we seem to be doing is watching our backs... and our fronts... and our front and back doors... and our mobiles... and our Internet banking access... and our cash cards.


And of course, the most vulnerable victims in all this thievery in whatev- er format are the elderly, who are deliberately targeted by shysters and thieves because they are perceived to be (and often are) not as worldly wise as the rest of us. You see it all the time on television programmes: so-called tradesmen calling at the door, selling spurious roof repairs, gas pipe replacements, fixed water leaks they caused in the first place etc., to innocent pensioners, who hand over thousands in payment of “repair bills” or other such home improvements that prove totally unnec- essary, or end up being more faulty than that which they “repaired”.


During this past year there have been several episodes of con artistry by telephone - if you dare call it that - which have been prevented by quick thinking taxi drivers and controllers.


We told PHTM readers about two of these earli- er last year: the first was in our September issue (highlighted), where the controller of an East End private hire firm prevented a 92-year- old woman from having her savings stolen. The penny dropped with Jan Townsend when the pensioner rang Westferry Cars on the Isle of Dogs after an identical scamming incident had happened only days before.


Jan recalled: “The pensioner asked for a mini- cab urgently to go to her bank; she told me she had to draw out all her savings. It sounded sus- picious and I asked her why - the same thing had happened to another pensioner in her 80s, in Hammersmith.


“She was told to get to the bank quickly and get her money out, because someone was trying to use her debit card. The police would never tell you to withdraw your savings.” Jan contacted the police, who got to the lady’s house in 20 minutes and prevented her being scammed; they also thanked Jan for her quick action. Fol- lowing these incidents the minicab firm introduced new practices to check when pen- sioners say they need a car to take them to the bank, to make sure they’re not victims of a con.


In our December edition (highlighted) we reported on quick-thinking cabbie Dave Love of Canterbury, who foiled a similar attempt to con a pensioner out of her life savings. Dave was booked to collect a package from a home in the St Martin’s area of Canterbury and take it to Lon- don. But he became suspicious after talking to the elderly woman, who seemed confused, and a man from London who had booked the taxi, and did not sound like the woman’s “son”, as he had described himself.


Dave said: “Something wasn’t right, so I called my controller at Cab Co and put the lady on the phone to him.” Alarm bells really started to ring


PAGE 42


when cab firm manager Steve Evans spoke to the pensioner and discovered the package con- tained her bank details and £4,000 in cash. “She told me that police had called her and said £4,000 had been taken from her bank and she needed to send the money to the man at Char- ing Cross Station.”


Here we go again. Mr Evans and members of the pensioner’s family then took her to the police station to report the incident. Mr Love said: “I’m sure that if he had got hold of her bank details, he would have emptied her account. I’m just glad we helped prevent it.” Of course the police issued the usual warnings about not releasing your bank details to anyone, and checking the legitimacy of any phone caller by asking them to phone back to give time to verify their details or get somebody trustworthy to be there when they phone back.


There has also been a spate of such scams in Southend recently, where telephone con artists have stolen thousands of pounds from elderly residents. More than 30 people in the Southend area, mostly over 70 years old, have fallen victim to thieves posing as police officers or bank offi- cials, with the hardest hit victim being an elderly woman in the Leigh district of the town being defrauded of £24,000 of her savings.


Same pattern: scammers target elderly victims, often claiming their bank accounts have been infiltrated by fraudsters and they must withdraw their savings for “safe keeping” while the “bank” conducts an investigation. The victims are then asked to order a taxi for the cash to be taken to London. But working with the police, cab com- panies have informed their drivers of the scam and signs to look out for, and a number of driv- ers have already foiled thieves - such as in the incident on a recent Saturday when a Southend driver became suspicious as he was asked to collect a package from Rayleigh and, after dis-


As reported in Private Hire & Taxi Monthy, September page 32.


covering the elderly resident had been asked to send £8,000 to “a detective chief inspector based in south London”, he called police and officers were sent to the scene.


Across Essex alone, 78 people have fallen for the scam since the start of last year, with a total of £274,368 stolen, and 463 thefts and attempt- ed thefts reported to the police. Detective Inspector Paul Maleary told the Southend Echo: “The victims tend to be vulnerable or elderly people, ranging in age from 70 to 90, although some much younger people have been target- ed. We would urge everyone to be on their guard and if you have elderly relatives, to make sure they are warned about these despicable crimes.”


OK, so relatives and friends can do this, but it was the alertness of our trade members that saved the day - and life savings - of these pen- sioners who had asked for a taxi to follow through with the scam, and were prevented from falling victim... this time.


You’re possibly thinking: Right - add this to the list of things I’ve got to be on the lookout for. As if there’s not enough for me to think about... And you’re probably also thinking: How can anyone be so naive as to fall for this sort of scam? Well, once a newspaper in Las Vegas ran a full page advertisement in one of their recent editions, with a completely white page and nothing else but this message: “ABSOLUTELY LAST CHANCE FOR YOU TO SEND $10 TO THIS ADDRESS!!!!!” - which incidentally was a post box number. That’s all it said; nothing else. They received thousands.


Yeah, yeah... it could only happen in America, you may say. Think again. And think about look- ing after the oldies round your way - they would really appreciate your being in their corner. Often you’d be the only one there.


PHTM JANUARY 2014


As reported in Private Hire & Taxi Monthy, Debember page 48.


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