Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text sizeA major leak of confidential files from Australia’s biggest taxi company has exposed accusations from its own senior staff that it failed to stem rampant rorting of passengers and government organisations.The leaked documents from A2B, which owns 13cabs, Silver Service and Cabcharge as well as providing payment and booking services for taxis across Australia, detail explicit warnings to the firm’s top executives that failing internal controls had enabled “eye-watering fraud” for years.The Taxileaks files – passed to this masthead and 60 Minutes – detail brazen criminality by drivers uncovered by A2B across its taxi industry empire, including the defrauding of dead people’s accounts and even of police officers.A2B chief executive Nick Yap.A2B chief executive Nick Yap was, in the middle of last year, warned via email by an outgoing senior compliance manager that it was “particularly troubling” that the rip-offs involved “vulnerable sectors such as NDIS, aged care and hospitals”.A second departing compliance manager told Yap in an email: “Major fraud on the Cabcharge terminals goes back years and senior management was made aware.”The scams typically involve taxi drivers exploiting loopholes in the terminal and payment systems A2B provides to them for a fee, or gaming Cabcharge fare payment products which A2B supplies to state and federal agencies, companies, hospitals and other health and disability services.A file dated December 2022 details how the Victorian Maroondah Hospital’s account was ripped off 774 times, nationwide aged and disability care company Villa Maria Catholic Homes 453 times, the Peter James aged and chronic illness care centre in Melbourne 342 times, and Gosford RSL in NSW 432 times.According to the internal briefing, the four organisations were among 40 clients, including many that rely on Cabcharge products, that A2B identified as having been scammed about 6000 times collectively.A2B sources, who cannot speak publicly, said health and aged care businesses likely featured prominently amongst affected organisations because they relied on Cabcharge products and their elderly clients and those with disabilities were seen as easy targets would not know they had been overcharged.The files detail individual cases too, including a Victorian Cabcharge account belonging to a former aged care resident who was charged 75 times over just a few days in early 2024, after she had died, which generated almost $3000 in fraudulent charges.In May, an NDIS provider in Sydney identified almost 2000 fraudulent taxi transactions involving six of its clients with disabilities, including one who was dead.A2B refunded the service more than $67,000, but company sources said police were not notified.A2B executive David Samuel downplayed the extent of fraud, and initially denied knowledge of the mass fraud cases documented in the company files and the internal disclosures to A2B’s chief executive detailing holes in the company’s systems and its inaction.But when pressed in an interview, he conceded he was “aware that issues were raised”.“That’s how we become aware of a problem and then we work to solve that problem,” he said.A2B executive David Samuel said the company is committed to stamping out fraud.Credit: 60 MinutesSamuel stressed that the company was updating its technology in response to concerns while acknowledging A2B systems had hosted egregious breaches, including the charging of Cabcharge accounts belonging to dead people.“I’m aware there were issues with accounts [of deceased people] not being closed when they should have been. We’ve worked to rectify that and clean that system out so that all those accounts are closed down,” he said.“We want to identify the problems and we want to fix them. We’re not going to say we’re perfect and that things haven’t gone wrong in the past and won’t go wrong in the future, but we want to identify those issues and fix them so people can have faith in them.”In a letter sent later through the company’s lawyers, A2B insisted that the rorting detailed in the company files uncovered by this masthead were historical and it was effectively combatting the problem.Graeme Samuel, the former head of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and an ex-chairman of Victoria’s taxi commission, said the revelations made it clear the industry was incapable of reform and regulators were failing.“Consumers are being ripped off. The public is being ripped off. And what this is revealing is decades of failure by successive governments in trying to regulate the industry. It is just not going to happen,” Samuel said.Former ACCC chief Graeme Samuel says the public is being ripped of as regulators have failed to act.Credit: 60 MinutesHe also lashed companies such as A2B, “who basically are at a position where they say, ‘If I can get away with rorting the system, why don’t I do it?’”Samuel said big taxi companies were in “tacit complicit collaboration” with fraudster drivers because they all made money from the rip-offs.“With technology and with oversight and with transparency, they could stop these sorts of frauds occurring. They just don’t do it.”Among the Taxileaks documents are detailed internal warnings from compliance investigators to Yap, the A2B chief executive, last year that criticise the company’s failure to stop widespread misuse of its systems.“This is concerning, particularly for the vulnerable sector, the aged care providers & NDIS,” Yap was warned in internal correspondence sent by a compliance manager.A second senior compliance officer told Yap last year that A2B had introduced “systemic flaws in the payment ecosystem” which generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue for the firm, and that these failings “have led to taxpayer-funded abuses running into millions of dollars”.Yap was warned: “The current [A2B anti-fraud and corruption] system is not fit for purpose, with major loopholes and non-compliance practice” exacerbated by A2B’s “significant lapses in fraud detection and prevention”.The warning also said: “The recent instances of credit fraud transactions without proper investigation, bulk crediting of fraud claims, and improper allocation of funds highlight systemic failures that undermine [the corporate watchdog] ASIC compliance requirements.”The formerly ASX-listed A2B was recently bought by the Singaporean global transport giant ComfortDelGro.A2B has little public profile compared to its brands, such as 13cabs and Cabcharge.Graeme Samuel described the firm as having a “near monopoly” over the Australian taxi industry.Even cab networks owned by its competitors use A2B’s payment terminals to charge passengers’ bank cards or paper, hard-copy or digital Cabcharges.Amid bad publicity about taxi and rideshare rip-offs at events such as the Australian Open and Taylor Swift concerts, A2B has positioned itself as a champion of cleaning up an industry governed under a patchwork of state and territory regulation that was dramatically scaled back with the arrival of services such as Uber.But the Taxileaks files show A2B’s failure to effectively combat fraud or call in the police helped fuel a nationwide culture of crooked driver impunity.A PowerPoint presentation prepared for senior management in December 2022 by Kim Whitman, an ex-federal police official who became an A2B compliance officer, described how complaints about driver overcharging or other misconduct had surged more than 580 per cent from the previous two years to total more than 8400 cases.Over that same period, the fares generated by A2B products and systems increased in value at less than half the rate of customer complaints. By June 2024, A2B was flooded with complaints, with one file recording a backlog of 13,000 fare disputes.The backlog was cleared before the ComfortDelGro takeover through a series of mass refunds that failed to hold most offending drivers to account beyond a requirement to pay a $25 fee.At that point A2B was fielding up to 1000 complaints per week, a figure likely to represent the tip of the fraud iceberg.A2B’s December 2022 internal anti-fraud presentation warned that overcharging was likely far more widespread because many victims never complained.“The real rate of overcharging is likely to be significantly higher than reported,” it stated, repeating a concern in other internal anti-fraud memos.In early 2023, staff circulated a confidential analysis of 2.6 million cab rides taken in the previous six months.It uncovered 190,000 trips in which drivers added a suspicious “other” charge to an existing fare, in one of a range of ways improper expenses can be added to a meter charge.The internal document calculated the suspicious rides generated up to $2.4 million in potentially fraudulent extra charges.Rather than calling in police, A2B handled fraud cases quietly, including via confidential “bulk settlements” in which no liability was admitted by the company.“We are planning to bulk settle with these accounts,” the December 2022 A2B internal report said of the 40 health, disability and other corporate Cabcharge clients defrauded about 6000 times.A2B’s decision not to contact law enforcement authorities but instead to confidentially reimburse large clients for mass overcharging is evident in other leaked documents.In 2023, A2B agreed to repay more than $175,000 to Air New Zealand for more than 1100 cases of “incorrect and/or fraudulent charges” accrued over five months and involving Cabcharges given by the airline to passengers who had flights cancelled.The settlement with the airline was “made on a confidential basis” binding all parties to keep the information secret.A similar settlement was reached with Qantas in connection to a fraud of about $450,000, while a third confidential settlement was made with the firm that helps airlines manage cancellations, Flight Disruptions, for more than $11,000 for the period between September 30 and December 24, 2022.When A2B discovered in August 2022 that a corrupt taxi driver had colluded with two relatives who worked at Monash Health and were given Cabcharges to get home during the COVID pandemic, A2B estimated that $52,000 may have been stolen from the public health system’s Cabcharge account via the overcharging of eTickets.The driver was terminated from the A2B network, but the taxi giant did not call in police.An A2B employee dealing with the fraud case wrote to a colleague: “It is now up to Monash Health of how they want to pursue the money. The driver said he has about $30,000 remaining in his bank account and said he will pay a lump sum and the rest in instalments however it is not with 13cabs any more. He can no longer drive so not sure where the money will come from.”In cases where passengers take it upon themselves to contact police, they are often ignored.Larry Abaloz says he is frustrated at the lack of police response after he complained about an altercation with a cab driver.Credit: Simon SchluterIn November, Larry Abaloz, a pensioner from Frankston in Melbourne’s south, complained to police after a 13cabs driver refused to accept payment via Abaloz’s taxpayer subsidised taxi card. The driver instead insisted Abaloz pay him via another means, which can be an indicator of fraud.Abaloz claims that when he refused, the agitated driver unexpectedly drove off while the pensioner was still in the cab, stopping a short time later and attempting to punch him.Abaloz said he was then forced out of the cab by the driver, who then drove over the pensioner’s ankle, causing immense pain.An independent eyewitness corroborated Abaloz’s account, but the pensioner said police had failed to follow up on his case, and he was concerned the driver was still on the roads.“There is impunity in the industry. Drivers are picking off vulnerable passengers, 13cabs doesn’t care and the police have done nothing so far,” Abaloz said.The Taxileaks files reveal that some drivers using A2B systems appear so confident they will avoid detection they have even targeted police officers using Cabcharge products.In May 2023, Victoria Police asked A2B why a driver appeared to have entered false destination details to inflate the fare cost for an officer.“This trip was NOT a round trip from Melbourne Airport to Melbourne Airport,” police wrote to A2B.“The Victoria Police member went from Melbourne Airport to … Eltham. This is clearly a fraudulent transaction. This is the third fraud dispute I have picked up in one month.”The Villa Maria Catholic Homes aged and disability care service has looked after thousands of vulnerable Australians across multiple facilities and is a typical A2B customer, given many of its clients require taxi transport as part of government subsidised care packages.It has also been ripe pickings for cabbies using A2B payment systems and products. The Taxileaks files detail how several senior A2B’s executives were briefed throughout 2023 on the exploitation of Villa Maria clients and A2B’s role in the rorting.The concern inside A2B about Villa Maria was triggered in February 2022, when an A2B account manager emailed a colleague: “Over the last few weeks roughly 30 [Villa Maria] clients have experienced fraud with their Fastcards on 13cabs app”.“Keep in mind majority of these clients are 65+ and vulnerable,” the A2B manager wrote, while also disclosing that Villa Maria “advised that these issues have occurred for years” and that the fraud “seems to have only gotten worse over the last 2 years”.Villa Maria’s management was “asking me how we can provide products but not be able to provide solutions when these situations arise?”The manager wrote to his colleague: “How can we [A2B] continue to retain, grow, or even build trust with these organisations if we have no support for issues like this when they arise or no support for the client? At this point, I feel like I’m at a loss.”Days later, the same manager warned that Villa Maria was fed up with the fraud and A2B’s failure to address it.Villa Maria’s staff were repeatedly “raising trip queries [with A2B] that have no outcome or assistance” and would be making a police complaint that week.On March 4, 2022, another A2B manager warned that cab drivers were exploiting many of the company’s products and the problem was “most prevalent with aged care and disability travellers”.A third A2B staff member warned that the company’s system “has gaps and hence the probability of fraud increases”.“So we need to think of wholistically plugging these gaps.”By March 15, 2022, A2B staff were in panic mode, having discovered that Villa Maria had “cancelled 65 cards in total since January 2022”.“Keep in mind some of the charges for just one card has been over $5000, another for over $7000. All due to the fraud … It does not feel like this situation is slowing down in any way currently,” an A2B employee said of the fraud impacting Villa Maria.“VMCH [Villa Maria] are not the only clients impacted by this fraud. Are we able to put together a plan to counter this along with a timeline as the client has asked what we’re doing about it?”By December 2022, the concerns were elevated to a senior A2B executive, who was sent an email thread detailing the fraud’s extent and the company’s failure to detect and effectively deal with it.The Villa Maria case study is far from isolated, according to the complaints detailed in the Taxileaks files.In 2023, non-profit home care provider Care Connect complained about more than $33,000 racked up over three months on an A2B account belonging to a vulnerable client.“Client has not taken these trips. Please investigate on these fraudulent charges on the card and provide us the credit for these transactions,” Care Connect wrote to A2B.In Queensland in February 2024, a police constable emailed Cabcharge and said she was investigating several frauds – 12 disputed trips – for a boarding school, Somerville House in South Brisbane.She said because Cabcharge had refunded the school’s account, Cabcharge would be considered the victim of the fraud by the drivers.“Could you please advise if you would like to make a complaint?” the constable said in the email.A source said Cabcharge did not pursue charges, or conduct an internal investigation and the matter was closed by issuing the refund.Another file records how in March 2024, a disabled passenger was charged $2500 by a driver who exploited loopholes in A2B’s payment terminals.The December 2022 A2B internal fraud report details some of the tactics drivers used to exploit A2B systems.It warns of drivers copying client card details then sharing them in private WhatsApp groups for other drivers to process transactions on the cards.Drivers frequently added extra fees to fares by gaming A2B technology, using the meter incorrectly, or issuing a manual receipt for a lower amount before processing a higher amount on the Cabcharge eTicket once the passenger had left.The in-taxi payment terminals are designed and distributed by Cabcharge – the company claims they are used in 97 per cent of Australian cabs – and there are nine generic codes built in, with which a driver can override a metered fare, known as a “meter flash”.The driver switches the meter on and off, then enters one of the destination codes such as hospital’, ‘city’, ‘airport’ or ‘home’ before being prompted to manually enter a fare amount, not linked to the trip’s GPS data or distance.Industry sources said they believed drivers and taxi networks were prepared to pay to use A2B products because they were so easy to exploit.One said drivers paid their taxi company network fees of between $700 to $900 per week, which was the main revenue source for 13cabs, and along with transactions from Cabcharge, generated profit for parent company A2B. Cabcharge takes a small cut of transactions made on its in-cab payment terminals.Allan Fels, another ex-chair of the nation’s consumer watchdog previously conducted a major inquiry into the taxi industry and has also advised Uber. He said the Taxileaks documents should trigger urgent intervention by the corporate and consumer watchdogs as well as state-based taxi regulators.“It is reminiscent of the wrongdoing by the banks, but with taxis there is a longer history of dubious behaviour in the interests of profit making,” Fels said.“Where government funding is involved with disability or aged care transport, there needs to be a special vigilance to prevent taxpayer robbery.”Scandal has previously plagued A2B and Cabcharge (A2B’s former name) for years, with allegations of wrongdoing often making headlines. In 2011, then-federal shadow treasurer Joe Hockey was charged on his account for a ghost taxi ride in Sydney while he was in Dubai.Fairfax Media, the former owner of this masthead, was defrauded of about $230,000 in 2012, in allegations that were explained away as the behaviour of a handful of cab drivers and not a systemic issue.For more on this investigation watch 60 Minutes this Sunday, 8.40 pm.Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
