Fake tickets?

[rebmcr]

there's nothing stopping you from buying a scratchcard in Penzance and claiming the prize in Thurso

Except a long ride on a Voyager!

 

[Busaholic]

I think you'd be surprised at how much an experienced person can take in at a glance. It took me a while but at work I can spot errors and anomalies very quickly now, fast enough to get people to wonder how I do it.

It's skill worth learning, but you can sort of relax your eyes and let your brain do the work and the stuff that's wrong just pops out at you. When a guard looks at thousands of tickets every week, I'd be surprised if the 'odd' tickets don't jump right out at him.
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I bet they're the same people who inflate their biceps in photos and forget to straighten the background after!

I'm a bookseller, as well as an avid reader, and I can open a book and spot a 'typo' on a page within seconds, even though I'm not reading it. Don't ask me how, because it's all unconscious but I'd have made a great proofreader!

 

[jon0844]

I can spot errors in stuff other people write, but my own? Sometimes it takes a few read throughs and even then you miss an obvious typo, like a missing letter or transposed letters. Then you can't believe you missed it!

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

 

[amateur]

I'm a bookseller, as well as an avid reader, and I can open a book and spot a 'typo' on a page within seconds, even though I'm not reading it. Don't ask me how, because it's all unconscious but I'd have made a great proofreader!

Booksellers get paid terribly. You should become an editor. which bookshop do you work for?

 

[mrmartin]

I once picked a roll of rail ticket stock that had been left on the counter at Hatfield station (the window was closed). I took it over to the gateline staff and suggested it might not be a good idea to leave it unattended!

I can't imagine it being that difficult to get real ticket stock. If you were organised, and even willing to be threatening, then I am sure you could soon obtain ticket stock from someone who handles it or has access to it. Either threaten, which runs a risk (depending on how menacing you are), or use plan b - pay said member of staff to let it go walkies.

Once you have a roll, or perhaps a bunch of season ticket stock, then it's a case of printing and encoding the magstrip and I can't imagine either being difficult. Can anyone else?

Naturally there will be people making fakes on their own paper/card and some may not even have a working magstrip, but I bet there are LOTS of printed tickets that could never be noticed unless every season ticket was validated on the spot by checking the serial number/customer details/photocard details against a database.

And that isn't going to happen is it?

I've also seen a roll of ticket left inside a ticket machine (in the ticket collection bit). Must of been 100s of blank tickets.

All it would take would be a heat printer thingy which you can get for a few quid and if you wanted to be smart something to read and write the magnetic strip. As long as you knew your stuff you'd have nearly impossible to detect fake tickets.

You could make tens if not hundreds of thousands selling those (assuming people would buy them). A Brighton-London season ticket for example that worked in the gates at both ends would be very hard to detect.

 

[Clip]

Why would QR codes help? By itself a QR code is no more secure than writing on a ticket. I understand the people are now making ticket stock with integrated smart chip, which will be more secure as you can make things so they only give up their secret when appropriately challenged.

You;re right they're not , on their own. But coupled with various other measures - like having the card that paid with it as the only form of ID - as I found out in Germany the other week - seems to work perfectly fine - as long as a new advantix was built that could load such data on it.

With seasons you could also incorporate something with the photocard too so they both match up with however you do it.


Its alll feasible but it will all cost money that the passenger would bear the brunt of.

Smartcard ticketing is a way forward but as Ive said before theres a lot of peoples jobs at risk because of it but no one seems that bothered about that.

 

[JaJaWa]

Seen this 3 times at my local station... I just put them behind the machine when it happens to lessen the chance of someone taking them.

 

[Clip]

Seen this 3 times at my local station... I just put them behind the machine when it happens to lessen the chance of someone taking them.

Thats just recklessness and have you reported it to the SM?

 

[whhistle]

You should take them...
Might be worth something in 100 years time when they're not around any more.

 

[tony6499]

To a trained, experienced eye it is quite easy to spot a ticket that is not quite right whether it doesn't look right or it's the wrong destination.

Next step is to ask for the ticket and have a physical examination and verify it using the Advantix, nothing wrong then no problem and a quick thank you to the punter and move on and if there is then time to make other enquiries. Usually by now the punter is beginning to panic and thinking this wasn't quite such a good idea and of course this gives the game away.

 

[cf111]

Why would QR codes help? By itself a QR code is no more secure than writing on a ticket. I understand the people are now making ticket stock with integrated smart chip, which will be more secure as you can make things so they only give up their secret when appropriately challenged.

A good few years ago Arlesey station was broken into and apparently all the ticket stock left behind. The thieves were IMO either really dumb or really smart (depending on whether appearances were deceptive)

Tickets bought from East Coast online have (or at least had) barcodes printed on them. I asked on here and was advised they are Aztec codes rather than QR. No idea what information the contain.

Picture attached.

 

[jon0844]

They're encrypted so you can't scan them.

 

[455driver]

I'm a bookseller, as well as an avid reader, and I can open a book and spot a 'typo' on a page within seconds, even though I'm not reading it. Don't ask me how, because it's all unconscious but I'd have made a great proofreader!

I hope you mean subconscious?
If you can do that while unconscious I would be seriously impressed!

 

[Skimpot flyer]

I think there may well be problems we haven't even thought of yet! Criminals are very innovative!

Ah, those Fun Lovin Criminals, eh ?

 

[thenorthern]

Just looking at the articles about Ticket Scamming in The Daily Mail and all the articles including the ones involving Eastern Europeans have the top comments as "The Rail Company has been scamming people for years".

Isn't it funny how Daily Mail readers dislike immigrants especially ones who commit crimes but in this case its an exception. What a bunch of hypocrites.

 

[Howardh]

Is this true or an urban myth?
Pigeons can be trained to spot fakes, eg banknotes, coins etc?
I know they're clever, but.....

 

[jon0844]

The TOCs will save a fortune employing pigeons to work at stations checking for fake tickets, while also carrying out other duties like standing on platforms, checking the status of roofs, examining overhead wires etc.

 

[edwin_m]

The TOCs will save a fortune employing pigeons to work at stations checking for fake tickets, while also carrying out other duties like standing on platforms, checking the status of roofs, examining overhead wires etc.

Including cleaning up all the pigeon c**p?

 

[jon0844]

No, that will be the (only) duty for the human staff.

 

[fairysdad]

No, that will be the (only) duty for the human staff.

Give them nappies.

The pigeons that is, not the humans.

Unless they're into that sort of thing and it stays under their uniforms.

 

[Wolfie]

Is this true or an urban myth?
Pigeons can be trained to spot fakes, eg banknotes, coins etc?
I know they're clever, but.....

Is their "tell" (ie the way they show they have spotted such a fake) to poop on the perpetrator?

 

[jon0844]

Give them nappies.

The pigeons that is, not the humans.

Unless they're into that sort of thing and it stays under their uniforms.

I think you might have just stumbled upon an idea to get staff to work without breaks for the toilet. Ideal for drivers.

 

[Busaholic]

Booksellers get paid terribly. You should become an editor. which bookshop do you work for?

The one I own, so the pay and conditions are terrible. Minimum wage would be a godsend for me to attain. I'm going to go storming into my boss's office the minute I'm off this forum.

 

[jon0844]

I'm going to go storming into my boss's office the minute I'm off this forum.

Be careful as I think he might be aware of all the things you're posting on here!

 

[dgl]

Be careful as I think he might be aware of all the things you're posting on here!

also does he know that you're on the internet when you should be working.
Combined with this and you're comments I think a written warning is needed.

 

[krus_aragon]

also does he know that you're on the internet when you should be working.
Combined with this and you're comments I think a written warning is needed.

Not a problem if he hasn't signed an Internet Usage Policy! :P