Irish Taxi Forum
Public Area => Taxi Talk => Topic started by: Belker on July 11, 2025, 08:31:17 am
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That FN customer looking fer late night grocerie deliveries and offering to pay €150 in taxi fare has made his way to Cork, I got his FN job offer at 3.30am last night and regocnised the text as posted on here a few months back.
I rang him and he asked fer my whats-app number, I hung up and blocked him. His user handle on FN was Simpso.
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You will be asked to pick up smokes or milk or something .But what you are collecting is cloned Debit or Credit Cards .So offering you 150 lets them check the card is not cancelled but you wont get the money when its discovered to be a fraudulent transaction .You are the Courier and Guinea Pig for the Card!
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I was wondering where the Scam was, but thanks to this forum I was well aware of it in advance.
And Thanks to whomever it was that first posted about this scam in Dooblin a few months back. :2cheers
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why would you do favor like that for a stranger anyway? id do shop runs for customers I know, not people I don't know.
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That FN customer looking fer late night grocerie deliveries and offering to pay €150 in taxi fare has made his way to Cork, I got his FN job offer at 3.30am last night and regocnised the text as posted on here a few months back.
I rang him and he asked fer my whats-app number, I hung up and blocked him. His user handle on FN was Simpso.
do they sound like foreigners. i texted the cunts make and forth and they sounded like absolute cunts they did.
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That FN customer looking fer late night grocerie deliveries and offering to pay €150 in taxi fare has made his way to Cork, I got his FN job offer at 3.30am last night and regocnised the text as posted on here a few months back.
I rang him and he asked fer my whats-app number, I hung up and blocked him. His user handle on FN was Simpso.
do they sound like foreigners. i texted the cunts make and forth and they sounded like absolute cunts they did.
Deffo foreigners, probably Africans.
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That FN customer looking fer late night grocerie deliveries and offering to pay €150 in taxi fare has made his way to Cork, I got his FN job offer at 3.30am last night and regocnised the text as posted on here a few months back.
I rang him and he asked fer my whats-app number, I hung up and blocked him. His user handle on FN was Simpso.
(https://i.postimg.cc/KzBjkkDM/Mohammed-1.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
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I had him Firstly on Friday morning 3.30am and his FN username was SIMPSO, which I blocked.
I got him again on Sat morning at 6am and his new FN username is SIMPSON.
Both jobs were booked fer outside convenience stores that were CLOSED going to different hotels.
Spoke to him on both occasions, sounded like as asian male with very poor english, I blocked him again.
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You shoulda just told him it's cash up front or no deal.
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You shoulda just told him it's cash up front or no deal.
As obviousely it is a Scam of some sort, no real point as that would never happen, on both occasions after speaking to him both times, I just waited out the last minute or so of the 5 minutes to get me Fiver Scrub fee, IF FN decide to pay them ?
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You will be asked to pick up smokes or milk or something .But what you are collecting is cloned Debit or Credit Cards .So offering you 150 lets them check the card is not cancelled but you wont get the money when its discovered to be a fraudulent transaction .You are the Courier and Guinea Pig for the Card!
That really isn't adding up fer me John m, can you explain it in a bit more detail (without any hypothetical nonsense) in to something that can actually work fer this FN scam, because this fella has been moving around, we have reports of him Twice in Dooblin and now in Cork.
By the way both convenience stores that I was sent to to pick him up from were closed in the early morning.
Everyone he contacted from on here has Not played Ball with him so far, so we still don't know exactly what the Scam is except that it involves getting the drivers Whatsapp number ??
Anyone have any idea of how this Scam works ?
Because obviously it does work, if it didn't then he wouldn't still be travelling around the country to do it.
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The scam isn't targeting you, Ken... you're just a pawn. I know of two blokes who unwittingly participated in similar scams and both got paid in cash, one just the fare (c.€90 IIRC) and the other a 3 figure sum including c.€50 tip. I think they were both Bolt cash jobs, the main scam artist (i.e. the one who interacted by telephone) having a cockney accent.
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The way the one's I heard of worked was pretty simple. They hire the taxi to collect an envelope from a private residence, The main scam artist phones the driver and asks him to knock on the door to lend a bit of professionalism and the initial desto is given as a bank. On route to the bank the desto changes and further along the line the scamster rings again to say his bruver/muver/ol' man is the person you collected the card from and he's now waiting for it at his new desto 'cos he's lost his own card and needs money for something or other. At that point he may offer a significant tip for the inconvenience (as in one case I heard of) or may not as in the other.
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This is a long post sorry..
I got one of these jobs couple of years ago on Bolt I think....
Scammers booked a taxi for pick up on Church street at going to Capel street only 500 meters away (for Ken)about 7pm...my perfect type of job.
I arrived and eventually after talking to a chap on the phone who claimed to be her nephew I met an irrate owlone.He sounded black on the phone and English.The owlone was Irish who was annoyed at me for some reason and she gave me an envelope.
Brought the envelope to Capel street where the chap on the phone told me to meet someone else which started to annoy me and he promised me a big tip too which I kinda thought was bollox as the blacks rarely tip.I was hungry and suspicious at that stage so after waiting on Capel street for maybe another ten mins with yer man on the phone pleading with me to wait for his pal I just drove off and dropped the envelope which had an ATM card in to the Bridewell cop shop and went home.
A few months later I picked up a Black chap with an Irish accent around Shangan in Santry who I think may have come through the walkway from Ballymun but I can't be sure.All the way into town was getting directions to meet someone in town to collect something but the person on the phone kept telling him to hurry up.I believe the chap in Ballymun was the bloke I was supposed to meet on Capel street a few months earlier but that's just my guess.That job was a freenow cash job.
I couldn't figure out the scam for a long time except we're being used as a go between.
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Merch they pay you with the card on Sum Up or whatever device you have .If its accepted they know the card is working and not reported in any way .If its declined they have options of running or paying cash .Most of the Drop offs are at Hotels lad comes out from reception if the card bounces he says hold on there till I go up to my room probably knows the way out through the kitchen .
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I dunno how the taxi job gets paid but at this point the victim has willingly handed over their ATM to the taxi driver who they think has been sent by the bank. The card working isn't the problem.
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The lads I heard of got paid no bother. I think the lucrative fare and/or tip is deliberate to discourage the driver from grassing if he gets suspicious.... They must be scamming way more than the ATM withdrawal limit on the cards.
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Maybe if they're in contact with the victim they can extract more details to buy other stuff online?
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Probably an international element with the cards being cloned within hours...
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i got an e-mail a while back that went something like this.
how's she cuttin. your phone's front facing camera was hacked.
we recorded you pullin yourself asunder while watchin home and away.
if you don't send us some compo we'll send the video to yizzer friends.
there's some very sick people out there. you'd think they're all confined to cork and laois but they aren't the cunts.
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You shoulda just told him it's cash up front or no deal.
As obviousely it is a Scam of some sort, no real point as that would never happen, on both occasions after speaking to him both times, I just waited out the last minute or so of the 5 minutes to get me Fiver Scrub fee, IF FN decide to pay them ?
FN did not pay out on either scrub fee even though all scrub criteria had been done.
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The 2 job offers I got from Simpso and Simpson on FN last week were fer 3.30am and 6.10am, and both were within a 10 minute walking didtance across the city.
John m might be on the right trail ?? but why not just jump in to a street taxi and try the card on him rather than leave some sort of trail by using an app ??
This is a sophisticated scam and were only guessing at what it is !
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One of the scams with Credit or debit cards is you clone a card .Lets say Big Dommo gives you his card you clone it Dommo tells you he has a 10K limit .Now You establish that you are in USA spending Dommos money .Go do the shopping take only a few ton in cash .Dommo gets a bill a month later says WTF I was never in New York .He Shows his passport to prove he was not out of the country and its Fraud .As long as Big Dommo who is in on the Scam does not use his card in Dublin which will raise a red flag if its also in new york its Bank Fraud and Covered yo insurance .Those cards could be cloned from anywhere in the World .I wonder if you did take the full payment lets say 12 notes for the trip 20 notes for smokes and 150 BoBo .Would you be liable to repay it based on what logic says you can reasonably expect a 150 euro bonus for picking up smokes .Could you be actually charged with conspiricy to defraud a credit card Company ?
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Strange how they give a good tip, not their money but Strange all the same.
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Psychology, I guess. If a taximan rather than a taxi driver gets suspicious and it's a decent fare he's more likely to think of trousering the used notes than wasting hours trying to explain his suspicions to some big thick bogger down the cop shop?
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A week on and still we are no closer to figuring out what this FN customers scam is ?
Apart from a few wild guesses at cloned bank cards ??
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In my situation it's simple..
The taxi driver is being used as courier to go between a member of the public who responded to a scam call or website and they're handing the credit or bank card over to a driver who they think has been sent by the bank.
I dunno if the driver gets paid but it's dodgy enough so just don't cover anything that's not a straight forward fare.We're not that stuck for a few quid that we can't tell dodgy fares to piss off.
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Speak for yourself... I've been logged on to both Uber and Free Now since c.07:12 this morning, bar an hour or so for shopping/breakfast and I've taken the princely sum of €19.00!
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Early mornings do really do it for me anymore except Sat/Sun.....Lately I'll do a couple of half days during the week and try to get some ok money on the weekends.Still end up with a bit less than the bus driver but a lot less hours behind the wheel.
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I've been getting up pretty early for the last couple of weeks, not particularly intentionally, just the way my sleep has been... so I've just been logging in and working passively which is highly inconsistent. Last Friday, for example, I started at c08:16 and trousered the guts of 4 ton by c.16:37 with two runs into Santry being the furthest I had to travel. Feast or famine!
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In my situation it's simple..
The taxi driver is being used as courier to go between a member of the public who responded to a scam call or website and they're handing the credit or bank card over to a driver who they think has been sent by the bank. .....
The 2 FN job offers I got last week were fer 3.30am and 6.10am which kinda scuppers your theory MFH, who is going to hand a bank card over to a taxi driver at those hours ??
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Scammers dont sleep Belker.Could be any number of scams.
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In my situation it's simple..
The taxi driver is being used as courier to go between a member of the public who responded to a scam call or website and they're handing the credit or bank card over to a driver who they think has been sent by the bank. .....
The 2 FN job offers I got last week were fer 3.30am and 6.10am which kinda scuppers your theory MFH, who is going to hand a bank card over to a taxi driver at those hours ??
If you're gullible enough to fall for the scam at 3pm, then why not 3am when the 24/7 fraud dept tells you a 'bad guy' is allegedly using it on the opposite side of the world?
(NTA, 2022) Taxi Drivers Thanked for Defeating Some Bank Card Scams (https://www.nationaltransport.ie/news/taxi-drivers-thanked-for-defeating-some-bank-card-scams/)
One of the major banks has asked us to pass on its thanks to taxi drivers who are defeating fraudsters and scammers through their own diligence.
Gardaí have received a number of reports recently of a scam whereby victims receive a smishing text purporting to be from a bank. When the cardholder clicks on the link provided, they then receive a phone call from a person stating they are from their bank. This person advises the cardholder that their bank card has been compromised and that they will send a taxi to collect their bank card and take it away for testing. A genuine, pre-booked taxi driver then arrives to collect the envelope/bag from the scam victim to deliver it to an alleged bank official waiting outside the bank branch. The victim later observes that their card was used to make withdrawals and purchases without their consent.
Some taxi drivers have refused to take the envelope from the cardholder, whilst others have refused to hand it over to the alleged branch employee rather giving it to a confirmed branch official inside the bank. This defeats the fraudsters and protects the public. Thank you!
A Garda press release is available on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/100064615877068/posts/garda%C3%AD-at-the-garda-national-economic-crime-bureau-gnecb-are-warning-the-public-/327081352789058 (https://www.facebook.com/100064615877068/posts/garda%C3%AD-at-the-garda-national-economic-crime-bureau-gnecb-are-warning-the-public-/327081352789058)
(https://onpasture.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/013016tomhanks-forrestgump-575x330.jpg)
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Scammers dont sleep Belker.Could be any number of scams.
I know all that, what I or anyone else does not know is what this current FN scam merchant currently working in Cork and previousely in Dublin is up to ??
(https://i.postimg.cc/2yhWBK24/thumbnail-IMG-0344.png) (https://postimg.cc/2Ljys2p6)
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Ring and tell him you want a deuce... cash up front.
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Ring and tell him you want a deuce... cash up front.
I contemplated that the last time he booked me but I didn't bother, because no way would he go fer that.
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If you don't ask...
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If you don't ask...
So Rodent your advice to Grown Up Men .Is accept the Gelt from the Conmen .Especially if already suspect it a fraud .Justice Martin Nolin will give you twenty Seven Years in 400 North Circular for Conspiracy to defraud .
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If you don't ask...
Try working for Free Now in the Northside suburbs for an evening or two... If you report every time you might suspect your services are being used in commission of a crime you'll spend 58+% of your time chatting with completely disinterested coppers in R district... until they get pissed off with you interrupting their night of fast food fueled snooker and have you sectioned!
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If you don't ask...
I can kinda agree with that, but this is a well thought out scam (even though we still don't know what it is ??) and I didn't fancy wasting half an hour trying to find out what it was ?? But no way was I ever going to see any notes fer my trouble.
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who ever it is they have a hard on for your phone number.
i told the yoke to just tell me what they wanted in the shop and it kept asking me for my phone number to send me a picture of what they wanted. your phone number is integral to the scam whether it's used against you or it's passed off to another person who's unwittingly being scammed.
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Those phone sex lines cost a fortune.It's much cheaper to ring Belker pulling the pudding for five minutes than to ring the sex chat lines.That's the real scam Belker.Some lonely pervert trying to yogurt themselves.You are the victim....
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laffin.
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Months On and We are still not able to sort out what the Scam is ??
Or have even a decent clue ??
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He turned up in the beautiful seaside resort town of Balbriggan one morning last week, I meant to post it but forgot. Anywaysanall, you were right about him not going for cash up front. I rang him through the Free Now app a couple of minutes after pressing arrived. That's when the name rang a bell, if you'll excuse the pun. I hadn't seen the messages he sent via Free Now but they were there, pretty much as per screenshots in this thread. He wanted my phone number to send pictures of what he wanted me to collect in Dunnes Stores and bring to the hotel. I told him I don't give my number out and I'd need cash up front so I could meet him at the hotel and take it from there... cunt hung up on me. I don't think I got the no contact fee either.
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Thursday morning it was c.10:30.
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He turned up in the beautiful seaside resort town of Balbriggan one morning last week, I meant to post it but forgot. Anywaysanall, you were right about him not going for cash up front. I rang him through the Free Now app a couple of minutes after pressing arrived. That's when the name rang a bell, if you'll excuse the pun. I hadn't seen the messages he sent via Free Now but they were there, pretty much as per screenshots in this thread. He wanted my phone number to send pictures of what he wanted me to collect in Dunnes Stores and bring to the hotel. I told him I don't give my number out and I'd need cash up front so I could meet him at the hotel and take it from there... cunt hung up on me. I don't think I got the no contact fee either.
You should definitely contact FN about that scrub fee. As they reported from their recent "Second Driver Advisory Committee Meeting", they were "prioritising the automation of these [Automated Scrubs] to make things smoother for you. [And they would] be sharing more details on timelines soon." Your experience could help them become a better company :P
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I think you have to select unable to locate victim to qualify for the no contact fee. I probably didn't choose that option as I had contacted the client through the application's telephonic communication facility.
I'm sure the account has been reported to them by now. I think Doc is probably close to the mark in suggesting the apparent desire to harvest our phone numbers for some reason or other, with our Free Now subscriptions possibly being of relevance?
In that case it seems likely that the perpetrator is nowhere near the jobs being input and could well be operating from abroad. If you just wanted a handful of random drivers' phone numbers and you were on the ground it'd be much easier to simply take a short ride and pay by Revolut. It'd certainly make one think twice about accepting Revolut payments in the course of normal business.
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He turned up in the beautiful seaside resort town of Balbriggan one morning last week, I meant to post it but forgot. Anywaysanall, you were right about him not going for cash up front. I rang him through the Free Now app a couple of minutes after pressing arrived. That's when the name rang a bell, if you'll excuse the pun. I hadn't seen the messages he sent via Free Now but they were there, pretty much as per screenshots in this thread. He wanted my phone number to send pictures of what he wanted me to collect in Dunnes Stores and bring to the hotel. I told him I don't give my number out and I'd need cash up front so I could meet him at the hotel and take it from there... cunt hung up on me. I don't think I got the no contact fee either.
What FN username did he use ?
Simso ? Simpson ?
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Many months on now and WE seemingly super sleuths still have not figured out how this scam works ??
Defo as both DMG and Rat Catcher suggest, it is surely something to do with getting the taxi drivers phone number or whatsapp number and knowing the drivers FN account ??
Whatever the scam is, it must be working or else he would not be still doing it ??
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Simpson.
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Given that several of the tiny group of drivers on here have been targeted it's clear the scammer's casting a pretty wide net. Fortunately none of us have fallen for whatever the scam is but one can't help wondering how it's been allowed continue for so long. Free Now must be aware of it - are they not addressing it because they can't and/or they don't want to? - and I'd imagine NTAs enforcement officers have heard of it although it may not be within their remit?
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My thoughts exactly, but as WE can't figure out what the scam actually is, then most likely neither can FN or the NTA ??
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One would have thought Free Now could make some effort. The fact that they're not doing (or achieving) anything suggests they either have something to hide or it's simply beyond their technical competence. To be fair, computing €5.40 + €3.00 is beyond their technical competence but scams accessing data often involve disgruntled former employees.
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I was probably one of the first to get him,yonks ago,I just thought nothing about it at the time only cancelling and blocking him when I saw the "buy me stuff in a garage shite"