Someone Almost Fell For A Debit Card Scam At A Toronto Mall & Here's How You Can Avoid It

Have you heard about the latest scam tactic making rounds in Toronto? It's a debit card scam that's strikingly similar to the notorious Toronto taxi scams, and it could leave many unsuspecting victims in its wake.

One Reddit user recently shared their experience of how they almost fell victim to this scam at CF Fairview Mall, and it was a near miss.

The incident took place in the mall's outdoor parking lot on Wednesday, where the Reddit user was approached by a girl claiming that she had ordered a pizza from Domino's, but the driver refused to accept cash.

According to the Reddit post, the driver was waiting impatiently in his car, which had a Domino's sign on top, but looked a bit different from the real Domino's cars around. The Reddit user decided to help the girl pay for the pizza with their credit card, but that's when the suspicious acts started.

"The driver passed me his pos machine, and I was thinking to myself: 'ok, it cannot be a scam, why is he giving me his pos then?'" they wrote.

"I took my phone out, and here their sequence of super suspicious acts started."

The driver claimed that his pos machine did not support tap payments and then requested payment by debit, citing something about credit cards and HST.

This made the Reddit user suspicious, and they finally realized that they were about to be scammed. They told the driver that they didn't carry their debit card and left the scene immediately, noticing that the license plate on the car was distorted.

Many people in the comments expressed their skepticism at helping a stranger in the first place.

"Honestly, anytime it has to do with paying for someone else because driver/store/seller doesn't take cash/credit/debit/gold coins/human sacrifices, I know immediately that it's a scam," one person wrote.

"Any time you’re in public and a stranger comes up to you talking about money, it’s a ... scam. Just walk away," another said.

The Reddit user, who originally started the thread, said they were lucky to have heard similar stories before and managed to avoid being scammed.

"I had heard some stories of fake taxis in Toronto taking debit cards with pins from passengers and then return[ing] another debit card," they wrote.

This is, in fact, not the first time Toronto has seen such scams, as fake taxis have been known to take debit cards with pins from passengers and then return another debit card.

In June last year, Toronto model and actress Saja Kilani warned residents in Toronto and the GTA from her TikTok about a taxi scam she almost felt pray to.

The recent incident on Reddit is a scary reminder that these kinds of scams are still happening in Toronto and to remain vigilant when strangers ask you to pay for them.

"Don't hand in your debit card to anyone, and be extremely cautious with your pin," the Reddit user said.