Cab driver Omar Asemgar charged with identity theft

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The ABC7 I-Team has a warning about what city investigators call an "elaborate" debit card scam. [br /][br /]Taxi cab passengers say they were taken for a ride, and that their checking accounts were wiped clean after handing their debit card to a cab driver. One victim called the I-Team, and now a suspect has been formally charged.[br /][br /]What if your cab driver gave you back a different debit or credit card that wasn't yours? Joe Tosch says it happened to him around Halloween and he believes it was intentional.[br /][br /]"And he says my credit card machine is not working, so I hand him my MB Financial debit card and he does a manual imprint, swipe and hands me back a receipt along with an MB financial debit card," Tosch said. "Unbeknownst to me, it belonged to somebody else." [br /][br /]Tosch says he didn't discover the switch until the next day, when he got a call from the bank. About $400 was missing from his account and was spent at various locations in Evanston.[br /][br /]"They asked me if I had my debit card on me and I said 'Yeah, I do.' I pulled out my wallet and pulled out the card and said, 'No, I don't,' because it was somebody else's and I was shocked that these guys pulled the switch on me that quickly," Tosch said. [br /][br /]Tosch looked up the name on the other debit card on Facebook and found Cody Estle. [br /][br /]"The debit card was a card I lost last October by giving it to a cab driver who handed me a different card," Estle said. [br /][br /]He, too, says he was a victim of a cabbie "card swapping." [br /][br /]"I lost all of my money, my account was at zero. I just took care of it with my bank and thought nothing more of it until a year later, I get this Facebook message saying some guy has my card that has expired a year later," Estle said. [br /][br /]Victims couldn't remember the cab number so the I-Team alerted the Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Department to see what could be done.[br /][br /]"What was happening is those credit cards were being swapped," said BACP commissioner Maria Guerra Lapacek. [br /][br /]Investigators at BACP asked Tosch to give them that credit card imprint. They and Chicago police detectives used it, along with the exact amount of the fare, and the time of Tosch's ride, to track down a suspect.[br /][br /]"We have a suspect in custody," Guerra Lapacek said. [br /][br /]And one day after the I-Team interview, police formally charged Omar Asemgar, 51, with one felony count of aggravated identity theft and five felony counts of identity theft. In a release CPD said he "obtained the information after the victims used the cards to pay cab fares."[br /][br /]BACP is now reminding people if you're not swiping your card in a newer machine in the back of the cab: "Try not to be in a hurry and try to watch where it is going and once it is swiped make sure the same card is given back to you," Guerra Lapacek said. [br /][br /]The suspect pleaded not guilty but is currently being held in jail. His cab license is suspended pending the outcome of the investigation. [br /][br /]Evanston police are also involved since some of the transactions happened there and they are looking into claims from a third victim.[br /][br /]Here's how to protect yourself next time you're in a cab: be aware of the cab number and the taxi cab company. You can take a picture of that information with your smartphone.[br /][b][br /]More tips about paying for your cab ride and reporting problems: [/b][br /][br /][url HREF="http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/bacp/Consumer%20Information/knowbeforeyouridefull2.jpg" TARGET="_blank" REL="nofollow"]http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/bacp/Consumer%20Information/knowbeforeyouridefull2.jpg[/url][br /][br /][br /][url HREF="http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/bacp/Consumer%20Information/flyertaxifarepaymentfull2.jpg" TARGET="_blank" REL="nofollow"]http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/bacp/Consumer%20Information/flyertaxifarepaymentfull2.jpg[/url]br /][br /][br /][url HREF="http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/bacp/Consumer%20Information/bacp311flyer20140520full2.jpg" TARGET="_blank" REL="nofollow"]http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/bacp/Consumer%20Information/bacp311flyer20140520full2.jpg[/url][br /][br /]