The US Consulate General in Cape Town warned on 6 October 2026 that people posing as Uber or taxi drivers often wait near the ground-floor exit at Cape Town International Airport, sometimes wearing Uber lanyards. Off-app rides taken from them have cost travellers extremely high fares. Security alert
The pickup named in the alert is the ground floor of Parkade 1, reached by following terminal signs to the Ride-App Pick-Up area. The journey should be arranged before leaving the building, through an app, the airport-authorised desk, or a hotel. The vehicle should be one the passenger requested in the app, and the driver and vehicle details should be checked there before anyone gets in.
Anyone who approaches inside the terminal, or outside it, with an offer of a ride is to be turned down. So is anyone pressing a passenger to cancel a booking already in the app. Staff at the information desk on the ground floor or the second floor can help a passenger who is unsure.
What the November report adds
A Yahoo report on 3 November 2026 gathered October accounts of the same exits. People posing as e-hailing drivers were described approaching passengers, and some were described telling arrivals that the official pickup was too far and that the app booking should be cancelled. The report does not find one named fake taxi booking app at a single Terminal 4. Several airports use that number, including Heathrow, and the author found no verifiable fake-app warning for Heathrow's Terminal 4. The cases treated as the best documented are at Cancun International Airport. Yahoo report
An airport contractor quoted there put the card-machine trick at a fare of about 250 rand, with a far larger figure entered on the machine. That sum is his figure, not an official count. The consulate alert records extremely high fares and gives no amount.