Thousands of people ripped off by New York City taxi drivers who illegally overcharged them could get some money back.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg says his administration is looking into ways to reimburse cheated passengers.

The city's Taxi and Limousine Commission said last week it had discovered a scam in which drivers routinely charged a rate double the usual rate.

The city said 1.8 million trips were illegally charged over the past two years. The average passenger was overcharged $4.45. In total, the scheme bilked passengers of more than $8.3 million.

The city said Monday that it's exploring ways to find passengers who paid with credit cards and were overcharged.

The city discovered the scheme by examining global positioning data.