Taxi Scams: How To Sight Them

Taxi scams are just one of the things that we always hear over the radio, television, social media.  Almost anywhere and in whatever season, taxi scams often happen.  There are horror stories of taxi drivers who spray sleep-inducing chemicals to make the passenger fall asleep, only God knows what could happen to the passenger upon losing consciousness.  Taxis are now becoming unsafe, no wonder app-based transport services like Uber are becoming popular.  They seem to be a better alternative to taxis, especially that reputations of car owners are spread by comments from those who availed of their services.

I have always been a cautious rider, locking doors securely upon entering a taxi.  It has been my practice ever since one taxi that I took was victimized by 'hamog boys' along Guadalupe Bridge.  But I got victimized again.  I have to admit that I did not see it coming.  It was subtlely done and up to now, I am still fuming about it.  I vowed I will never be kind to taxi drivers again.  It happened along Edsa.  I took a taxi to pick up someone at the airport.  Since the driver was reluctant to drive to the airport, I  negotiated with him reasonably and said I will also take his taxi going back to Edsa cor. Quezon Blvd, near the MRT station, where I hailed him.  He agreed to the  proposition and I thought we were both happy with it.  

So off we went to Edsa and on that particular day and time (past lunch) it was kind of bumper-to-bumper.  We climbed Timog overpass and when we were about to merge with the traffic along Edsa, we felt a bad bump on the road.  It was a deep indentation 

on the road that really shook us, taxi and all.  It was at this moment that the driver said the clutch was loosen.  After a minute, the driver said, "I'm sorry, I cannot continue because my clutch got loose so I need to take the taxi to the mechanic."  At that moment, I did not even think that he was scamming me.  He slowed down and I immediately got off.  I know that the plane has already arrived, so I really needed to find another taxi fast.  I paid him a minimal amount.  Upon getting off, he sped immediately like nothing happened at all.  It was then that I realized that it was another scam of drivers.  But I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt.  But I cannot shake the thought that he might do the same stunt to other people.  It could be that it was an honest mechanical problem, but it gave him an idea.  My only fault was, I gave him my payment based on the meter.  However, in retrospect, I wouldn't know whether it was a reasonable thing to do had I refused to pay him even a minimal amount.  If you were in my position guys, would you have done the same?