This story sounded familiar so I Googled up another recent story.
From the Detroit News, September 23, 2010: NYC cabbies accused of fare scam
Quote:
Thousands of tourists and residents who took New York City's iconic yellow taxis were quietly ripped off by drivers who frequently manipulated their meters to double the fare rate, officials said Wednesday as 59 drivers were arrested.
Six drivers reeled in more than $10,000 apiece by repeatedly bumping their meters up to a higher suburban rate when they actually were in the city, the Manhattan district attorney's office said. One driver did that more than 5,100 times between November 2008 and June 2010, prosecutors said....
Sounds eerily familiar, eh? A pattern emerges.