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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Stranger CF’ers

38 replies

LikeYouSaid · 03/12/2018 01:34

Have you ever had a total stranger be a CF? I had a knock at my door at dinner time today (yesterday now I guess ) and it was a taxi driver. He asked if anyone lived with me called ‘Lou’ as they owed him money which had me a little . Turned out ‘Lou’ had called a taxi to my address Saturday night at 11pm and he’d picked them up (they’d been standing in my front garden as if they’d come out of my house). Two women perhaps late 30’s he said, giddy for a night out and booked under the name ‘Lou’ for my address.

They told him to put it on a tab under my address and the name ‘Lou’ as they were going to need a taxi back later that night. They even assured him if he didn’t hear from them to come knock on in the afternoon and they’d pay him then!!

Apparently they’d ran up a £27 tab!

Huge misunderstanding and I really felt for him but at the same time can’t believe the cheek of those two women! He’s going to get their pictures from the cam in his taxi and promised to show me in case I recognise them. I was in bed around 10pm on Saturday so very weirded out two women were lurking in my garden waiting for a taxi and told the driver to knock on my door in the afternoon to be paid! (not envy)

Anyone else had any CF strangers?

OP posts:

AviatorShades · 03/12/2018 01:41

Wow! What a scam and a half that was!

But..thank God for taxi cams!! Without that there was always the propensity for him to not believe you know absolutely nothing of this

Bloody hell!

TestingTestingWonTooFree · 03/12/2018 01:44

I think that’s more than cheeky fuckery, it’s complete dishonesty.

Barmaid101 · 03/12/2018 01:46

See I will order a taxi to an address close to mine going home few doors down etc but to them run a tab! What was he even thinking

MidniteScribbler · 03/12/2018 02:07

We ordered some take away food on the weekend and were sitting on a bench near the place waiting for our order. A woman was standing near the counter, and when the server put our order on the counter, she said 'thanks', picked it up and walked off, as casual as anything. It was only a while later when we asked where our order was that it turned out she had taken it, she hadn't ordered any food herself, was just hanging around to score a free meal.

CallMeRachel · 03/12/2018 02:12

Hmm...but surely he'd have the phone number they booked his taxi from?

Taxis in my area have done shaming posts on Facebook when they've been ripped off, usually ends up in them getting their money from the CFs friends or family members

Teapotlover · 03/12/2018 13:39

My mom was out for a meal with her friends a few years ago and when the bill came there was £100+ of drinks they hadn't ordered, turns out a large group of women at the car had been ordering and drinking everything they could (prosecco, cocktails, etc) and told the bar that they were with my moms group and to add it to their bill! Obviously my moms group did not pay as they had never even seen these women before but you can't believe the cheek of it.

Blanchedupetitpois · 03/12/2018 13:53

I can’t believe the taxi driver was daft enough to give them a tab!

Namechangearoo · 03/12/2018 13:59

That is at least 50% the driver’s fault IMO! I bet he won’t be opening a tab again.

badirene · 03/12/2018 14:20

I can’t believe the taxi driver was daft enough to give them a tab!

It is difficult to believe, so much so I would guess he was trying to scam OP into paying for a taxi that was allegedly called to her address.
How in this day and age would someone going "Oh open a tab" with a taxi driver pass the sniff test. This stinks to high heaven.

kikashi · 03/12/2018 14:23

badirene my thoughts exactly!

IchWill · 03/12/2018 14:29

Hope you didn't / don't cough up OP?

Feefeetrixabelle · 03/12/2018 14:31

I reckon the taxi driver was the scammer. Who runs a tab on a cab?

jarhead123 · 03/12/2018 14:36

Agree. Reckon the cabbie is the scammer and the girls and fictional

WTFIsAGleepglorp · 03/12/2018 14:36

Round my way, when we book cabs, we're told the price by the controller and the drivers ask for the money up front.

Too many cut and runs

ToEarlyForDecorations · 03/12/2018 14:38

No offence to OP but I'm sceptical too.

sockunicorn · 03/12/2018 14:38

A few years ago a young man was stood at my front door. There was a taxi parked at the end of my (quite long) driveway with the driver stood out of it, leaning against the car watching the man. The young man didnt knock but I have a doorbell with a sensor cam on it so I knew he was there. I came to the window (i was upstairs with the baby) and asked if he was ok. He shouted back "yeah love, no issues." He then proceeded to jump over my garden fence into my back garden. I ran to the back window to see him jumping over the fence at the back and running away.

Next thing the taxi drivers knocking on the door. The man had said he would just go and ask his wife for the money for the taxi as he had forgotten his front door key. But its ok, if shes not in he would jump over the fence and go through the back. So he had (not knocked) stood at my door then scaled the garden and done a runner! Odd thing is, if I hadnt got the sensor cam I wouldnt have ever known any of this had even happened!

blueshoes · 03/12/2018 14:38

I am not inclined to pay money to anyone to turns up at my door with something to sell or sob story because the chances of them being a scammer are pretty high.

If the taxi driver is genuine, it is a hard lesson learnt. £27 is not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things to write off. He won't be doing that again. You should not subsidise him (I doubt you did) in any way because he was the one who made the judgment call to run a tab. A sympathetic smile and then close the door.

VanGoghsDog · 03/12/2018 14:40

I also reckon the 'taxi driver' was the scam, there were no women at all.
Any local CCTV or cameras on your property OP?

I'd make a police report.

sockunicorn · 03/12/2018 14:40

sorry, sent before I had finished!!!.....So I think taxi ones are quite popular as theyre quite easy to do.

Walkerbean16 · 03/12/2018 14:52

I've had the same done to me as Teapots mum. two blokes stood at the end of our table drinking, left and then a waiter brought their tab over!

LegoAdventCalendar · 03/12/2018 14:58

The taxi story is a known scam. Bollocks there were women who did that. Have had people try to run up a tab on us but the staff was supposed to verify that with the person or group they claim to be part of. Those two scenarios are not CFers, they are thieves.

Amummyatlast · 03/12/2018 15:04

On a night out recently, my group were at the bar buying a large round. As the bartender put the drinks on the bar, CF reached over and picked one up, claiming he had left his beer there. Fortunately the bartender challenged him, and he wandered off without argument.

poptartprincess · 03/12/2018 15:06

Devil's advocate here but depending on if they were a taxi (hackney) or private hire, it's very common for PH to run up tabs.

ginswinger · 03/12/2018 15:12

I sold someone some fabric over Ebay. As she opened the package, she snipped the fabric and would like me to send a replacement for free. I declined her offer.

Floofboopborkandsnoot · 03/12/2018 15:14

I don’t find it that hard to believe. Slightly different but almost every time we’ve had a taxi take us somewhere they’ll ask if we’d like picking up too and if we do then they take down our name, number and address and take payment after they picked us up. If he thought he knew the address of the women and that he’d be picking them up again then I don’t see why it would be hard to believe he let them have a tab.

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