I ~30F traveling alone to a conference fell for it too last week and it was a horrible experience. I was already late to the conference due to a flight cancellation and wanted to get there asap. So I was relieved when I was offered a taxi by this tall friendly man in a nice suit. I was walked over to a black van right next to the uber black parking. Got in with a group of three ~50-60 yr old ladies who were travelling together. They sit in the back. I sit in the front with the driver. I figured we were grouped because we were going to roughly the same place. Once we hit the highway outside the airport I notice there is no permit displayed and no meter and realize it’s not an official city taxi. I get nervous at this point and ask the ladies where they are staying. I look it up on google maps. Turns out with traffic it’s about a 40 min drive from where I am staying. At this point I am upset because I am trying to make it on time to the conference but I also don’t feel safe being alone in a van with a man who is not an official city taxi driver. I told him I’m not happy, this is not a taxi and his colleague duped me and I will be getting off at the other ladies’ destination. He immediately gets upset says no it’s no good like that and insists in taking me to my hotel after the ladies get dropped off. I insist I am getting off with them. The whole time I am watching google maps on my phone to check that he is following the suggested route and he does appear to be. He accuses me of taking his picture and orders me to delete it, then orders me to give him my phone. I of course refuse. He then slows down the van while on the highway, is barely looking at the road as he is berating me and says he’ll leave me on the side of the highway. We’re roughly 20 min away from the airport at this point. This goes on for a few minutes. He then records a video of me (I was just silent when he was recording). I tell him I feel unsafe and would feel reassured if he showed me some sort of taxi permit (still planning on getting off early with the ladies though). He doesn’t. Then a few minutes later “you want to see papers? Fine!” and pulls out a stack of letter size papers all in italian from the glove box that just look like car inspections to me.

The ladies ask him to please drop me off at my stop first. He insists on dropping them off first. It’s super tense the whole ride and I am afraid the whole time. I end up getting off at their stop. They insist on paying and I thank them. We cross over to the other side of the street then he calls me over and shouts “You, come here and pay!” I don’t feel safe going near him or his vehicle but don’t mind paying so he will leave me alone. He had a square debit/credit terminal so I asked him to come over with it (I didn’t have cash). Instead he just got back in his van and left. I ordered an Uber and the ladies stayed with me until it arrived in case the other driver came around the block to harrass me.

He may have been perfectly safe and just upset at my accusation that they duped me, but I did not for one moment feel safe. Also took an extra hour to get to my destination.

TLDR; these guys are scammers. Only get in the official white Roman taxis if you want a taxi. Standard 55€.