Lai See | New taxi driver scams prey on overseas visitors to city

We hear of two new scams doing the rounds on the taxi grapevine. Both usually involve picking up a foreigner from the airport.

In one of the scams the driver feigns engine trouble and pulls over on to the hard shoulder, explaining that he needs to check out the car. So he has a look under the bonnet and moves round to the boot. He scans the passenger's luggage and anything valuable and accessible, like a laptop computer, and hides it in the boot. Then he tells the passenger that the mechanical problems are serious and he can't continue the journey. But he phones a friend who appears in another taxi. There's a quick transfer of luggage and off the passenger goes, unwittingly without his computer. Then the other taxi driver roars off and sells whatever he has looted.

The second scam is again one that usually occurs with non-Hong Kong residents.

Readers will be aware of the two sets of numbers on the meter, with one showing the fare and the other, in smaller numbers, the extras for carrying luggage and going through tunnels. Some drivers obscure the second number for the "extras" with black tape, and then unobtrusively punch in a few hundred dollars of extras, which is added to the fare at the end of the journey. This is best done in the dark.

You have been warned, so tell your friends coming to Hong Kong about these tricks.