I would estimate that I have taken taxis to/from PVG/SHA over 300 times over the past 40 years.
I have had 3 bad experiences ( 2 attempted rip-offs, 1 driver could not find my hotel).
That is about 1% bad apple rate.
The attempted rip-offs were dealt with the same way similar scams in BKK, MNL, CGK are handled.

I only have about 1/3 of your data points, and I've been scammed 2 times for a total cost of Y150, 30 wasted minutes, and my mood was sullied for half the day in each case. If we multiply that financial hit by 2%, that's a probability adjusted cost of Y3 per ride. YES, the convenience of the taxi queue justifies this risk! It's hard to put a value on the bad moods, but there are other bad mood inducing things in China.

With passengers having GPS maps on their phones these days, how can taxi scams even work? Just make sure the meter is on and point out to the driver if s/he isn't going in the right direction.

Agree, you will have to queue up and hope you get lucky with the color of the taxi.
I guess I have had maybe around 20 rides from PVG into downtown with a taxi, got scammed twice. One time where the driver "jogged" the meter so the fare was doubled. Another time the receipt printer did not work and no price was displayed so when we arrived I had to pay a made up price. However, the third and final time I was not scammed but I almost got into a altercation with the driver when he refused to drive, that really put me off the whole taxi thing. Since then I only use public transport directlly from the airport.
(As you might have seen in my previous posts I used the Airport Link Line followed by DiDi which worked well.)

You can't even trust the big taxi brands anymore -- the last time I was ripped off it was by Jinjiang (I documented it either in this thread or a related one).

With GPS being prevalent, the most common scam I've run into is doctoring the meter, but by 5-10% distance-wise. So my standard operating procedure upon entering a taxi is saying my destination, and the precise distance. That worked until the last time. It does cause a lot of grief, but I enjoyed lecturing the guy the last 1/3 of my ride on how he shouldn't rip people off and how he's lucky I'm not calling the police.

If the driver is not wise onto me knowing their scam, I let them drive into my compound, and I tell them I've alerted security not to let him out. Then we start the lecture / negotiations. I'm of the idea not to pay them anything at all, but my wife thinks I should pay them something. She's too soft.

My last taxi ride from PVG to downtown was the final straw that pushed me to full time didi (or maglev/subway). The guy did as you did and ran the meter hot the whole trip and a ride that should have cost 170 was showing 350 by the time I arrived at my apartment.

I had picked up on it about 10 mins into the ride but didn't say anything as I wanted to get home. When he stopped in front of my place I told him that I will pay him 170 for the ride and nothing more. He sheepishly smiled and accepted it. I don't need that hassle on my life so I've stopped with them altogether.

And how is someone who can�t speak Chinese (maybe OP can, but not all tourists can) negotiate or get their way out of a taxi scam? Looking for the right DiDi license plate sure does sound like an easier time to me!

• hand over the proper fare and walk away (a la travelinmanS )
• ask a Chinese person to assist when you disembark; any hotel doorman will do that

It's really not that hard.

Didi eliminates all this, much better option.

My brother came to visit me around 10 years ago, in the days before didi. He doesn't speak any Chinese and ended up getting charged 500+ for his ride into town from PVG. How was he to know he was ripped? He assumed it was the normal price. He only found out later when asking me if it was the right price.

_ann_ should pull Y300 from an ATM upon arrival, buy a bottle of water (so, that she has Y250 ready to hand over), get in the taxi queue, and head out.

I would say 200, but the legit cost might be little more than this.

I want to reiterate the convenience point. This doesn't matter so much for you or me because we do the public transit routine, whenever possible. The taxi que is idiot proof.

Isn't the taxi driver's ID displayed on the dashboard? Why not take a picture of it if you're concerned about being scammed? Better still, let the driver notice that you're taking a picture. You can also record the route traveled using Baidu map or Amap, the two popular navigation maps in China. Google map (but not Apple map) also has this functionality but it requires VPN to function in China.

Some of those placards are so worn out you can't see what's written or whose picture. Or, they're just fake.

Even if the route is correct, more often than not it's the meter that's been tampered with.

My point is that you can report the driver (not just for the route s/he took, but also potential meter tampering - which can be easily figured out based on the route) if you have a picture of the ID (+license plate if you wish to make an extra effort). The threat that you can report them is probably more than sufficient to deter, so that you don't have to actually report them. In the last few decades, I've seen huge improvement in China of the culture of customer service and how seriously companies there deal with complaints (local Chinese seem to complain a lot more than those of us who mostly live elsewhere).

And my point is that some of those placards are either illegible or outright fake (i.e., copied from a legit driver).

Don't you get receipts from the drivers that attempt to scam you? Do you ever follow up with the police or their companies?