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I've heard people said both terms to mean that when the taxi driver is trying to rip you off by tampering the meter or taking a detour. But which usage is more common or correct in terms of nomenclature? Taxi fraud or taxi scam?

(I found that Google returns "taxi scam" 52,700 results while "taxi fraud" returns only 4,460, but not sure if that just means fraud is more uncommon or is actually incorrect)

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  • "tampering with the meter"
    – TimR
    Commented May 30, 2015 at 10:23
  • oh, yeah sorry for the typo
    – RexYuan
    Commented May 30, 2015 at 11:13
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    "Taxi fraud" is apt to be heard as "tax fraud".
    – Hot Licks
    Commented May 30, 2015 at 12:38
  • I'm not sure why this was put on hold as primarily opinion-based. Is it because the discussion here? Or does it really means the too are interchangeable? Or wether they're interchangeable is opinion-based? I'm a little confused. What am I doing wrong?
    – RexYuan
    Commented Jun 5, 2015 at 3:34
  • Or is this simply a bad question and there's no way to improve it? :(
    – RexYuan
    Commented Jun 5, 2015 at 3:35

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I suppose that "taxi fraud" could also cover the proprietors failing to report earnings to the taxman, including the VAT system. This is pretty common, in many countries taxis are pretty well "black economy".

In theory you could say that the driver or owner was scamming the Treasury, but I don't think that usage is common, so that 'scamming" is used only for drivers cheating passengers.

I have been living in a place where taxi drivers double as armed robbers, so don't make a fuss about little detours!

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  • With you it's a bit hard to tell. What place is that? Can't be any place in Switzerland, can it?
    – Tushar Raj
    Commented May 30, 2015 at 10:37
  • Can fraud taxi driver scamming passengers be called a taxi fraud?
    – RexYuan
    Commented May 30, 2015 at 11:17
  • @Tushar. No, it was my previous location, Doula in Cameroon. I think I have PTSD from that. Switzerland OTOH is lovely and peaceful. Ordnung muss sein!
    – David Pugh
    Commented May 30, 2015 at 11:31
  • My intuition is similar. Scam would imply customer, whereas fraud implies the system. I was scammed (short-changed) by a taxi driver in Lausanne Switzerland once in the 5 years I lived there. No place is scam-free when it comes to taxis. It's a job that has a lot of opportunities to be opportunistic!
    – Fuhrmanator
    Commented May 30, 2015 at 13:42

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