Tourist scamming taxi gang exposed by U.S. influencer

 ROME - The gang of violent taxi driver who threaten honest co-workers and scam foreign tourists ended in a video going around of a U.S. influencer, which immortalised the attempted scam near to the Vatican. Basically, one of the close by drivers tried to ask the man for 45 euros for a trip of only a few kilometres, to piazza Navona, reports Il Messaggero.

 The event was denounced and reported by Fit CISL Lazio, UGL Taxi, Federtaxi Cisal, Uritaxi Lazio, Confcooperative Taxi Roma Trasporto Persone, Fast Confsal Taxi, Consul-taxi, Legacoop, Atapl Claai, ATI Taxi Associazione Tutela Legale Taxi, CAN Taxi and AGCI.

 In practise, in the days just passed “Influencer Matt Ferguson, with all the reasons of the case – they explained – showed to thousands of people on his social media platform, the disgraceful little theatre of illegal behaviour that goes on every day, in the favourite haunt of those unjust ‘colleagues’.”

 More than the damage, the insult. Because whoever proposes the scam would be a self-styled union representative seen several times beside the gangs of illegal hirers. In the video, Ferguson, accompanied by a lady, near the Vatican Museum, asks a taxi driver to be taken to piazza Navona (not even two kilometres away).

 The man directs him to his colleague, who then asks for 45 euros for the journey. When the influencer asks that he use the tax meter, the man is then no longer willing to transport him. Subsequently, Ferguson turns to another taxi driver, this time an honest one, who instead took him and his friend to piazza Venezia for nine euros.

 The response has been harsh from the trade unionists who denounced the episode: “these people make the profession famous, destroying the hard work that we put in to defend out image. These few individuals that discredit out profession must be got rid of. It requires an immediate and resolutive intervention. We ask the Gualtieri union and the Patane councillors for continuous and rigorous controls on who works, in addition to the law and sure interventions against the abuse and illegality in public transport.”

 An inquiry by the Polaria di Fiumicino, in last June, resulted in the prohibition from service and the suspension of the licenses of six drivers who were threatening station attendants and co-workers who shared the route from the airport.

 According to the Old Town attorneys office, they form part of a gang, who also operate in the areas of the Vatican, the Basilica di San Pietro, the Colosseum, Termini, and the Castel Romano.

th