Originally Posted by SandraT

Hola Vicente: at least in Latin America, arrancar is not used as rip off (with the meaning of deceive or steal).
the word we use for that rip- off is "estafar", "engañar" although there is one phrase that could be used for that too.we can say for example:

el vendedor "me arrancó la vida"... to express a "big time" rip off...

we got ripped off by the taxi driver...el taxista nos estafó (nos engañó) and if you would like to use arrancar, it would have to be something like
el taxista me arrancó la vida
but the other speaker has to be right into the context cause "arrancar la vida" can also be translated in other contexts as "he took my life away from me" ( meaning I was in love with him and he left me or something like that).
Hope I didn't make it too long and twisted and you understood.