When you pay with plastic, cab drivers need to make sure that card works. They call in the numbers over the radio and anyone who has a scanner can listen in. That's your information in the hands of a stranger.
Bill Bayne has been driving Evansville taxis for 14 years.
Three months ago he started his own company: Cardinal Cabs. The reason Bayne branched out? Safety. He says when passengers pay with credit cards in other cabs, the taxi driver calls in the card number to make sure the card's good.
"Anybody and everybody who listens to a police scanner get to listen to your credit card transaction," Bayne says. He says a few of his customers were ripped off when their card numbers were copied. "The scammers don't care-they're geeks and freaks who are trying to get your money any way they can."
When paying for a taxi ride using a credit card at the Cardinal Cab Company, you swipe your card through this machine. No numbers read over the radio. Bayne says it's the best way to keep your personal information safe.
"Maybe two percent of our business is credit cards-it's not a very large part of the business at all," says Heather Williams, Vice President of River City Cab.
It's the biggest cab company in Evansville and it doesn't have credit machines in the cabs. Drivers write the card number on charge slips; they can also call in the number.
"It's a private radio frequency," Williams says.
NEWS 25 asks: can't people listen in on that radio?
"It's not legal to do so if I understand correctly with that. I was just dealing with that because we had somebody listening in-doing some things illegally with that," Williams says.
"It really doesn't hit home to you on how it's happening until some Joe says look...I've seen this happen, I prefer you not to do it this way," Bayne says.
River City Cabs is trying to get money to install a GPS, credit card system inside its cabs. The vice president says it should happen later this year. She says she hasn't heard any customers complain about fraud.
