July 18, 2008
Six Arrested in Metro Farecard Scam
Six suspected con artists have been arrested for their involvement in a counterfeit Metro fare card scheme.
The suspects are accused of trading in counterfeit paper farecards to Metro farecare machines in order to receive legitimate ones, or adding the phony amounts to SmarTrip cards. The cards would then be resold, with the scammers earning at least $16,000.
The six suspects were arrested in D.C. and Virgina stations including Judiciary Square, Union Station, Pentagon and Eastern Market. The Post notes the individuals had the cards in their possession.
Honest customers are going to be affected, says John Catoe, Metro's general manager.
"The amount of money customers may trade in the value of a paper fare card has been lowered from a maximum of $40 to $7," Catoe said in a statement.
SmarTrip cards that investigators believe are linked to the scheme have also been frozen to allow Metro personnel to track if more fraudulent transactions occur.
Photo by moworld
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Who would buy Metro cards from a dealer? If people bought the fare cards because they were being sold at a discount, then those buyers deserve to lose the money they paid for them as punishment for their shear stupidity.
I guess Metro only cares about people who scam the system to make a profit, or else they'd actually care about the people who use the same bus transfers to avoid paying the fare. Not that I have a problem paying the $1.25, but there are definitely people riding the bus who haven't paid a fare in months (maybe years if they're really good at keeping those pieces of paper from disintegrating).
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heh heh, "Virgina"
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Is this somehow related to the station manager turning tricks out of the dupont station? farecards for f*cks?
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Crime in the subways?
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
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Still hard to believe Metro's response. There are a small number of criminals the system and Metro decides to inconvenience all riders by bringing back the non-sensical $7 trade-in limit. It sounds just like their response to the parking lot money skimming.
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I was wondering why when I went into the Georgia Ave/Petworth Metro on Saturday it was plastered with signs about this subject.
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is this steve ballmer impressioner guy supposed to be funny or something?
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Soon to be heard over the loud speaker in every Metro Station..."Excuse me, is that your scam?"