A crooked livery cabby was busted for pulling a credit-card switcheroo on his fares, often while they were drunk, and then using the stolen cards to pilfer thousands of dollars from their accounts, cops said.
The hack was nabbed earlier this month for allegedly orchestrating the simple scam, where he’d pocket passengers’ credit and debit cards and then give them back one he’d already looted.
Jawad Shabir has been linked to nine such alleged heists, but cops are investigating as many as 35 reported incidents.
He was able to pull a fast one on some of his victims because they were too sloshed to realize he’d given them someone else’s card.
“The victim usually doesn’t notice he has the wrong card until the following morning,” a police source said.
By that time, Shabir was able to pillage thousands of dollars from the victims’ accounts, cops said.
Two of the alleged victims — who told The Post they were not drunk during their rides — described how they were ripped off.
“He was charming,” said Robin Lauffer, 50, who lives in the Financial District.
“It’s all about getting your guard down. I was asking him stories about himself. He said he came from a little town in India.”
Lauffer said she hailed a livery cab in the West Village after she couldn’t get a yellow cab.
She said that Shabir would not take cash and that he explained “he had been robbed the night before, and he would only take credit or debit.”
After taking her card, he appeared to wrap it in a receipt and gave it back to her, she said.
The next day, she realized she had someone else’s card and checked her own account. She said $4,000 had been withdrawn using her card from ATMs in Soho and Tribeca.
Another alleged victim said she had two cards stolen in one ride by Shabir.
Anastasia Efimova, a 40-year-old lawyer from Chelsea, said the cabby lifted her cards while giving her a ride in the West Village.
“It was quite a sophisticated little scam,” she said.
Efimova said 19 withdrawals were made with her debit card and a cash advance was made on her credit card, for a total of $5,000.
Shabir has been charged with grand larceny, and identity theft, and is in jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.