Dear Editor,
I too have been the victim of the ‘taxi mafia’. On December 4, I ended up waiting at the Cancun airport for a friend’s delayed flight, for 14 hours.
Two of the ‘taxi drivers’ were very congenial for the 2 or 3 hours I waited outside in the evening. They knew it had been a long day for me.
When my friend finally arrived we got in the back of the taxi and one of the men said it was better if I used the debit machine and since I wanted to hang on to my pesos I agreed. Yes, now I’m quite ashamed of my gullibility.
He stood outside and put the machine in the window at an awkward angle. The fare was supposed to be 800 pesos to the hotel strip. He entered the info, showed me 800 on the screen and then… ooops didn’t work. So he tried again. “dead battery”.
I paid cash plus 100 peso tip and told him it had better not show up on my card twice.
A few hours later I thought I’d check and no 800 peso charge. 8000 pesos charged twice! Close to $1000 Canadian!

I called Visa right away and then again the next day. I’ve been told that at best I might get one of the charges back.
Pat, Canada