Some refuge may be in sight for thousands of people who were cheated out of millions of dollars by New York City cab drivers who illegally over charged customers in order to make a quick buck.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Monday his administration is looking into ways to reimburse ripped off passengers.

The scam was uncovered last week, when the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission announced it had found drivers regularly charged customers double the usual rate. In total, officials state 1.8 million trips were illegally charged over the span of two years.

The city reportedly has about 48,300 licensed cabbies and data shows that 35,558 illegally over charged a rider at least once. Meanwhile, 3,000 cabbies apparently doubled the meter rate more than 100 times.

The city discovered scheme by examining global positioning data that is placed inside the cabs.

According to reports, the average passenger was over charged $4.45 in total -- bilking customers out of more than $8.3 million.

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In one instance, Wasim Khalid Cheema, a licensed medallion driver since May 2007, apparently cheated $40,000 out of 574 people since last July. He was nailed February in an administrative hearing that was made public March 1.

Officials said the 22-year-old would double his earnings by setting his meter at rate code 4, which typically covers trips to Nassau and Westchester, instead of code 1, which covers the city's five boroughs.

A suspicious passenger reportedly complained about the meter in Cheema's cab, which happened to be increasing "very rapidly" during a July trip from Manhattan to Woodside, Queens.

Cheema's license has been revoked. However it has not been determined if he will face criminal charges.

"Some of these people could face serious charges," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "Now, how we would ever recoup the money and get it back to the individual payers, no, but we can stop the practice and we can make sure there's penalties."