Quite different than the scam pedicabs that operate in US cities now.

ndsipa_pomu 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

They're popular in London too. The scam seems to be that if tourists don't arrange the price beforehand, it'll be arbitrarily inflated - they don't run a meter like a licensed taxi.

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raddan 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

What’s the scam?

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Waterluvian 4 hours ago | parent [-]

They’ll end up charging you like $120 for a 10 min trip by just being deceptive and evasive about the fee structure.

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Sholmesy 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

(London perspective), I've intervened from tourists getting scammed before from these guys, and they get violent very quickly. Especially fun because they have their gang all around.

Unlicensed, unmaintained, motorized vehicles on pedestrian paths, a miracle no one has been killed yet.

It's kind of insane, and is a microcosm of the UK's inability to do anything.

- Everyone hates them, from residents, to businesses, to the tourists that get harassed by them.

- There are multiple laws, that if the police wanted to, they could enforce at any time.

- Nothing gets done.

It is an impressive level of apathy from an already toothless government.

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jacquesm 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Then you give them the finger and walk away.

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Waterluvian 3 hours ago | parent [-]

It's not that easy. He had those little chains strung across the side exits and wouldn't remove them until I paid. I told him they don't let you out of Canada with that kind of cash but he didn't believe me and laid siege to my day while eating a slice of pizza like a taco. The worst thing was that this was my second mishap with non-combustion locomotion that day. ...I still swear that was not the real Secretariat and that Central Park isn't in New Jersey.

	▲	jacquesm 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Hm. Ok, well, I guess we would have handled that differently. I had something similar happen in Germany, on the way from the (international) airport to a hotel the driver started some kind of spiel that suddenly his banking machine had broken and he couldn't take card payments. My friend/colleague Jaap who was with me said we'd pay cash and I said no way, and after fiddling for a bit with his phone (mine wasn't a smartphone) gave the driver a different address. When we ended up in front of the police station the driver became a lot more friendly, drove us to the hotel instead and suddenly found that his banking machine had miraculously started working again... I find that by giving in to such fraud I'm helping to perpetrate it so I've vowed not to let it happen, at the same time there is always a chance that such an interaction would turn violent. After all, they've already decided they want to steal from you. My weighing of this is that they have more to lose than me because I'm a transient and they are not.
	▲	Cthulhu_ 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		If they don't let you out of a vehicle, that's kidnapping and / or extortion and a call to the police should resolve it quickly. In a functioning society, anyway.
	▲	mmooss an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Easy to say from the comfort of my terminal, but some urban advice: Remove the chains and get out; most important is your freedom and safety. They aren't going to risk prison for assault and battery. If they give you trouble, call the police immediately. Take a photo of them and text it to a friend. Don't act intimidated no matter what; it just makes them think they are getting somewhere with you. Then offer a reasonable fare. If they don't accept, offer to call the police and let law enforcement sort it out. They'll take the fare.