Just giving a heads up of a possible scam.

[ChrisTex]

Meant to post this on Wednesday, but got sidetracked.

So on Wednesday after visiting immigration in West Jakarta and waiting on my Grab car, two different guys stopped and asked where I was going and wanted to offer me a ride. I said I had already ordered a car and they went off. If it was a taxi, I wouldn't have even batted an eye. However the cars were your regular Toyota Alvanzas which got me wondering after they left if this was some type of scam to get money from a bule. This is the first time a non taxi driver has asked me this.

Has anyone else experienced this before?

 

[Daniel50]

My wife and I were waiting for a vehicle and someone drove by on the street and offered his vehicle. Of course I would not just get into a vehicle. I would not just get into any taxi, so why would I get into a random vehicle with my wife. No Thanks.

 

[fastpitch17]

We have had that happen numerous times in Jakarta prior to Grab and Uber while waiting for a taxi to flag down. We always asked them "how much" and they always said two to three times what a taxi would cost. We always refused.

Here in BL there are actually people who travel up and down the highway asking people waiting for buses if they want a ride. Higher then a slow bus cost but if going far, a lot less then if you paid a taxi for the trip. Before we were driving here we would take that really slow bus and many times someone would pull over and ask if we wanted a ride. A taxi would cost Rp100 ribur where as these guys would charge you Rp20 ribu each. All sorts of vehicles and we normally only accepted the nice vehicles. We always passed on the goat trucks and messy vehicles. No one ever gave up any problems.

 

[Anglian]

You get a lot of these people at the airport, avoid them like the plague