From our mailbag comes the following from a DCist reader:

I thought I’d write about something that happened last night. I took a cab from Adams Morgan to Woodley Park (short hop, but it was 11, and I wanted to be safe) — I was sending messages on my blackberry, and the cab driver asked me if I saw his cell phone, I looked around under the seat, and didn’t, then he asked if I had a cell phone and could call him to help him find it.

“Ah, it was in my pocket!” he said. I didn’t think anything about it. He dropped me off. Two minutes later, my phone rang and it was the cab driver’s number. I didn’t answer, and found it a little creepy. Then I started to think about it, and found it really creepy.

I realized he now had my phone number, name and address — everything you need for identity theft.

Call me a little paranoid, but now I feel it was a well rehearsed scam. Get someone to give your cell number, your cell recording usually has your name on it, your full name if you use it for business, and maybe even your employer, the driver knows where he just dropped you off, writes it on his log. That’s more than enough to do a little idenity damage. Or a lot.

I put a fraud alert on my account this morning.

Maybe the driver was just calling back to thank me for helping locate his phone or the generous tip, but you can’t be too careful.

This is not a scam we’ve heard about before, but it does sound plausible. DCist readers, have you had similar experiences? Does this seem like an actual lost phone or a clever ruse?

Picture taken by the mat.