Turkish police hunt ‘scammer’ taxi drivers in Istanbul
Fırat Alkaç - ISTANBUL
Turkish police and municipal security officers seek to find a total of 120 taxi drivers who have scammed tourists.
According to an official who spoke to Hürriyet on the condition of anonymity, initial findings showed that the taxi drivers are working for four companies and some of them have no driver’s licenses.
Scam methods include using fake money and refusing to admit customers except foreign tourists who could be more easily overcharged due to their unfamiliarity with their way around Istanbul.
Several taxis were seized and one unregistered driver was fined in the first wave of operations conducted in Istanbul’s touristic neighborhoods of Sultanahmet, Taksim and Eminönü.
The move came after a team from daily Hürriyet disguised themselves as “foreign tourists” to document the reckless attitudes of taxi drivers in the streets of Istanbul, which have been subject to the increasing number of tourist complaints.
