Taxi-driver in Vantaa suspected of credit card fraud
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A Helsinki taxi-driver is under suspicion of having fraudulently used a customer's credit card in Vantaa in September.
The cabbie has allegedly made a note of the customer's PIN number as he keyed it in, and then emptied the account at an ATM, after the cardholder - somewhat the worse for drink - conveniently left the card on the seat of the cab.
The driver is believed to have lifted EUR 1,700 from the account, and the case is now being considered by the prosecutor's office in Vantaa.
The events leading to the incident took place in the early hours of one Saturday morning.
A seriously tired and emotional customer paid for his trip using one of the electronic devices into which the card is inserted and the cardholder types in a four-digit PIN number.
The assumption is that the driver saw the fumbling actions as the customer keyed in the number.
The drunken passenger then actually left the card on the seat of the cab.
According to the statement details on the account, the first illicit withdrawal took place only a matter of minutes after the fare had been paid for, at around 3:30 a.m.
The suspect then went again to withdraw cash on the card at around 6 a.m.
According to information received by Helsingin Sanomat, the police have been able to ascertain the precise location of the taxi at the times of the illegal cash withdrawals.
In both cases it was parked in front of a cash ATM.
The customer noticed the card was missing the following day. He later discovered the card in the mailbox of his apartment building, into which it had been dropped.
Helsingin Sanomat has learned that the taxi-driver under suspicion has received his licence in Helsinki. The man, in his twenties, has been driving a cab for around a year.
Helsingin Sanomat
