Four men, a woman and a boy are facing more than 250 fraud-related charges in an investigation into a series of taxi fare scams across the GTA.

Multiple reports of taxi fare fraud continue to roll in each week, Toronto police Const. Kristin Thomas said. “We’re talking in the hundreds of victims, because this has been going on for quite some time.”

“If you think something’s wrong, report it!

“If it’s only $50 or $100, don’t think it’s not good enough to report,” Thomas said. “Because it’s the only way we’re going to catch these people.”

Investigators learned taxi drivers were picking up passengers in the evening or early morning hours and defrauding them, Toronto police said in a news release Thursday.

Drivers would hand customers an altered debit/credit machine that displayed an error message when the PIN was entered, police said.

The driver would then ask for the machine back and switch the passenger’s debit or credit card with a similar looking card from the same bank, police said.

The customers would believe the payment was processed successfully and continue on to their destination with the switched card. Police said the driver or an accomplice would then fraudulently take money from an ATM using the stolen card and PIN recorded on the altered debit/credit machine.

Thomas said none of the people arrested were licensed cab drivers, but were using taxis registered to legitimate companies.

The companies themselves are working with police to identify suspects and stop the scams, Thomas said.

“Pretty much” all operating cab companies have been affected, she said.

A representative speaking on behalf of Diamond Taxi said the company was unaware of the recent scams until they saw media reports. They said the only way to track if a Diamond car was being misused was if it was reported to the company with the cab number.

Beck Taxi operations manager Kristine Hubbard said the company has been “begging” the police to let them assist with the scam investigation.

“The only real victim, in the end, is a bank or insurance company, or the reputation of the taxi industry. So is that something that they are going to throw a bunch of resources into? I don’t know,” she said. “I think we all know that the taxi industry has not been met with the best support in terms of reputation.”

Hubbard said Beck cabs have a number of security measures to make sure they’re not used improperly. Drivers must log into the meter with their license number and phone number in order to receive customers — and Beck can see when a vehicle is moving with no one logged in, she said. Besides that, she said all credit and debit machines in Beck cars are visibly branded.

The company has also been advising drivers not to ask for debit cards, she said, and warning customers to never give their debit card to the driver.

Hubbard said, while she was relieved about the alleged scammers being caught, she hopes the city doesn’t have to hear about incidents such as this anymore.

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Police have warned the public as recently as October to be on alert when paying by card.

Some victims report money being withdrawn from their accounts the same night their cards were allegedly stolen. Hamiltonian Dylan Hudecki’s account was drained in increments of hundreds of dollars in September from multiple ATMs, adding up to a loss of $4,989 — just less than the $5,000 needed to constitute a lengthy prison sentence if the perpetrator were found guilty.

After executing three search warrants on Dec. 19, police recovered a debit/credit machine, as well as financial documents, mail and personal banking information of the victims.

Four men, a woman and a boy have been arrested. They are charged collectively with more than 262 fraud-related charges.

On Tuesday, a 16-year-old boy from Toronto was arrested. He is scheduled to appear in a Toronto court on April 3 at 10 a.m. He cannot be named under provisions related to the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Mohammad Sarwar, 25, of Toronto, was arrested on Dec. 20. He is scheduled to appear in a Toronto court on Feb. 28 at 10 a.m.

Alex Ghakhar, 22, and Adam Ghakhar 22, both of Toronto, were arrested on Dec. 19. They are scheduled to appear in a Toronto court on Feb. 12 at 10 a.m.

John Alexander Mackenzie, 24, of Toronto, was arrested on Nov. 28. He is scheduled to appear in a Toronto court on Feb. 6 at 10 a.m.

Tracy Begley, 48, of Toronto, was arrested on Nov. 14. There is a bench warrant out for her arrest.

Police are warning the public there are still a number of taxi scams occurring throughout the GTA. They recommend passengers never leave their debit or credit card unattended inside a machine “anywhere or at any time,” and to be aware of taxi cab numbers and company names with which they are using them.

Anyone with information regarding these incidents is asked to contact police at 416-808-5500 or call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477).

Claire Floody is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star’s radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @claire_floody