Well I never – never been overcharged this much, not even in Beijing where the taxi drivers are very predatory and many times engaged in scams with the driveway staff of the hotels.
In a piece, Hanoi taxi driver arrested for overcharging Singapore delegates, it was noted that:
Colonel Nguyen Duc Chung, deputy chief of Hanoi police confirmed the arrest [of the taxi driver concerned] on Monday.
The driver has been escorted to Hanoi for questioning. A lawyer told TuoiTreNews the driver could be charged with "cheating to appropriate private property".
According to TuoiTreNews, the victims are Mr Chen Ang Dani and Ms Than Sha Pen, who were forced to pay 6 million dong (S$600) for a ride of only 10km. The normal fare should have been only 150,000 dong
My first thought was to wonder whether Singaporeans are gullible when travelling until it occurred to me that it was the taxi driver was the one who was a sausage short of a barbecue. The two mentioned passengers were two of the Singaporean delegates to the 80th Interpol General Assembly meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Right! So if you are going to really cheat heavily on your customers, make sure that they are not members of Interpol first – the taxi driver could run but he could not hide!