Scammers use Google, in Lyon and Paris, to carry out a fake taxi scam, which has become a real scourge

A wave of fake taxi scams has been raging in France since May 2023. It affects both companies and customers, trapped by the use of the Google search engine by the scammers.

Foreign pirate telephone platforms have been working for almost a year to impersonate renowned taxi companies, such as G7 or Taxi Lyonnais. They use the Google AdWords sponsored system as well as mirror sites to mislead customers and make them pay for trips that are sometimes 40% more expensive than normal. To trap their victims, hackers start by posing as real local taxi providers.

A well-conducted fake taxi scam, with a real driver carrying out the trip but an exploding bill

So how does the scam work? First, the criminals create mirror sites. Behind these sites, we find a simple web page which copies the commercial names, graphic charters and logos of the taxi companies. Taxi Lyonnais, with 200 independent drivers on the clock, is one of the victims. G7, a large Parisian company, is also targeted, as is Taxi de Lyon.

On the sites, there is no legal information, nothing that can prove that the site is authentic, apart from of course the visual identity and the name of the companies. Once there, customers can make reservations, either online or by telephone. Like nothing ever happened.

When a customer makes their reservation, they even receive a confirmation by SMS, with the name of the company whose identity has been stolen. On the day of the appointment, a car comes to pick up the client, but it is not really a taxi, rather an unmarked car, or a VTC, which is then justified in working hand in hand with the taxi company. cheated. Ultimately, customers find themselves paying 40% more for groceries than a traditional rate. A well-executed scam.

Google, the primary tool used by fake taxi scammers

That’s just the visible part of the iceberg. The submerged one is a little more problematic. Despite itself, the giant Google is singled out, with taxi companies accusing it of being, in some way, complicit with the crooks.

Because in fact, the thugs owe their visibility to the Mountain View firm. Pirates promote their mirror sites on the search engine thanks to Google AdWords, the tool which allows, for a fee, to be more visible in searches, and to appear at the top of the results. Scammers take advantage of the fact that any new site that passes through AdWords “ benefits from prime exposure », explains Julien Vernusse, general director of Taxi Lyonnais.

For the moment, and despite the complaints, nothing is changing, in particular because the sites are hosted abroad, and the organizations behind these scams are very well hierarchized. Their leaders chat via Telegram, and they are difficult to locate. Nevertheless, the response is being organized, and the Fraud Repression Department, the DGCCRF, has been notified.

Source : The Dauphine