'I can see the card between your legs': Toronto police arrest 14-year-old boy in a taxi scam investigation

Toronto police have arrested a 14-year-old boy in a recent taxi scam investigation after a TikToker warned residents about the scam that almost cost her her debit card on Sunday evening.

On Monday, Toronto police received a call after someone observed a taxi cab involved in a similar scam at the Cedarbrae Mall parking lot.

Police say they arrested the 14-year-old boy and he has been charged with the possession of property obtained by crime over $5000.

Toronto model, Saja Kilani, warned residents and shared her story on TikTok and claimed that a taxi scam involving a teenager and a driver are trying to steal bank cards from customers and passersby.

Kilani says she was walking in the area of Bay and Yorkville after doing some groceries when a teenage boy stopped her and asked if she could cover his taxi fare since they only accepted cards and he only had cash.

The boy showed her the cash and said he will pay her if she helps him. Not skeptical yet, Saja decided to help him.

“You know, I thought to myself that if I was in a situation like this, I would want someone to help me too, and so I decided to help and walked up to the parked taxi,” Saja says. “I asked the driver if he just drove this boy and he said yes. So I gave him my card.”

Saja knew something was wrong the minute she handed her debit card to the driver, she explains.

“I was handing my debit card to the driver and the teenage boy suddenly started talking to me really fast and was trying to get my attention. He even said he would pay me extra money if I wanted to tip the driver, and I could see he was fidgeting a little bit,” she said.

Kilani then noticed from the corner of her eye that the taxi driver secretly slipped her card down while he was fixing the machine. He then put her card in the machine and gave it back to her.

However, after she paid and handed the machine back to the driver with her card, the driver returned it—but the card didn’t have her name on it.

Kilani knew it was someone else’s card.

“It was then I figured out that it was a scam,” Kilani said.

She immediately opened the front door of the taxi and leaned in and told the driver it wasn’t her card.

“I said to him, ‘I can see the card between your legs. Give it to me’. And his first reaction was to start laughing and say, ‘Oh, you saw that? It was just a prank’,” Kilani says.

After that, Kilani says she pulled out her phone to film him.

"As soon as I started pulling out my phone, he put his mask on and his son or whoever it is also put his mask on."

As soon as she started taking a video of him, he started to drive off but Kilani managed to get details about his car and license plate on video.

Kilani's video spread quickly over the weekend and has gotten over one million views, and hundreds of likes on it.

She replaced her card online and then filed a police report using the details she managed to grab on video. Because her story got so much traction, she was able to hasten the process of a police claim.

What do these 'taxi scams' look like?

The taxi scams are exactly like what Saja experienced on Sunday.

Toronto police say that the scam involves a vehicle (for instance, a taxi cab) will park in a busy area in the middle of the day. One suspect poses as a driver and the other as a customer. The customer approaches the unsuspecting victim after a heated argument and ask them to pay via their debit card since the driver refuses to accept cash due to COVID-19.

After the victim hands his debit card to the driver, the customer distracts the victim and the debit card is changed for another card.

The point of sale terminal record's the victim's card data and PIN number, which is then used by the scammers to make fraudulent transactions using the victim's card.

How can people protect themselves?

Toronto police are asking people to be vigilant when using public transport that results in debit or credit card transactions.

People should be careful of all taxi cabs claiming they don't accept cash since all licensed cab companies accept cash as payment.

Residents are also being strongly advised to not leave their debit or credit card unattended inside a point of sale terminal anywhere, to cover their fingers when enterting their PIN numbers, and to inspect their cards after each transaction to make sure it's their card. Customers should also make it a point to take the machine from the driver while paying instead of handing their card.

Lastly, people should be aware of taxi numbers and company names when using their services and be aware of the driver's identification that is displayed to the customer in clear view in the back of the cab.

Toronto scams on the rise

Toronto is witness to a lot of scams that have been on the rise lately.

Recently, a CTV news story warned small business owners and workers of a new scam in the Greater Toronto Area that targeted debit and credit payment terminals in stores. Scammers have been stealing payment machines and then using them to refund money into stolen credit cards.

The scammers then go to the bank machines and withdraw money from the credit cards. Police are calling these thefts a part of a "refund scam".

Hundreds of charges were also laid in a recent Toronto moving scam in which moving companies were picking up a person's belongings after quoting a really low price and having customers sign contracts without final amounts. The movers would then withhold customers' belongings until a higher amount was paid—which was usually thousands of dollars more than the originally quoted price.

Anyone who has information, or believes they have been a victim of a taxi scam, is urged to contact police at 416-808-4300, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), or at www.222tips.com.