Facebook user Amo Jov shared his experience of possibly being cheated of $97 when he was trying to get a taxi ride from Beach Road to Woodlands yesterday.

Jov said that when he was trying to hail a taxi along Beach Road, a silver Honda pulled up and the driver told him that he was a private taxi driver and that he was from Uber, a popular taxi-booking app. Jov got into the car subsequently.

Jov noticed something amiss when the metered fare jumped to over $50 in less than 30 minutes. Jov claimed that when he boarded the taxi, the driver told him that the charges were "$3.90 upon boarding & $0.70 per km" but the driver subsequently said that he had told Jov that he charged $8 per kilometre.

Not wanting any trouble, especially since Jov was with his wife and children, he paid $97 and alighted halfway.

Jov's Facebook post drew many comments from other users with some claiming that they too boarded the taxi and had to pay exorbitant amounts:

Private taxis in Singapore are only allowed to pick passengers up who have a prior booking, that is to say they are not allowed to pick up passengers flagging for taxis.

Passengers booking a taxi thru Uber also need not pay in cash, but with their credit cards instead.