MetroCard scammers cost MTA millions
BY VINCENT BARONE
The MTA is losing tens of
millions of dollars each year
to MetroCard scammers,
according to the transit
authority.
As part of a crackdown on
fare evasion, the MTA and
police will in part focus on
vandals who break Metro-
Card vending machines to
sell swipes at turnstiles. The
crime costs the MTA between
roughly $30 million and $40
million each year, according
to Pat Warren, the MTA’s new
chief safety officer.
The MTA estimated it lost
more than $200 million in potential
revenue to fare evasion
in 2018–not including roughly
$40 million it spends sending
staff to repair tampered-with
MetroCard machines.
Warren believes targeting
scammers could help the
MTA’s goal to recoup roughly
$50 million via fare evasionrelated
enforcement.
“We have a focused effort
looking at trying to gain back
some of those monies by policing
those areas,” Warren said,
of stations where there is a
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high rate of scamming and
fare evasion.
The authority is also monitoring
stations and times of
day where evasion is high.
“By looking at this tactical
effort as where fare evasion
occurs and applying our
resources, in this case, police
forces, to those locations we’re
pretty confident that we’ll be
able to get to $50 million in
savings annually,” Warren
continued.
A persistent issue for the
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MTA over the years, scammers
typically vandalize
vending machines within
stations and then sell swipes
to commuters looking to get
through the turnstiles, deploying
one in a stack of MetroCards
they’ve acquired,
according to Warren.
“It’s a business to these
swipers,” Warren said.
The scammers could collect
time-based MetroCards,
or cards from tourists near
airports as they leave the
city, according to Warren.
Sometimes tricksters will don
a safety vest; open an emergency
gate and charge riders a
dollar or two to walk through
at high-volume stations—like
those near sporting events, he
said.
“They’ll pretend like
they’re the MTA: ‘Oh, the
turnstile is broken; give me
two bucks or three bucks.’
People think, ‘Oh, how nice
of the MTA.’ Well, it’s not
the MTA,” Warren said. “We
don’t do that.”
Tried and true tactics of
swipe-sellers also include
“jamming” up machines
with paper or other garbage
or pouring honey or syrup on
the keyboard to disgust riders
enough not to touch the
machines, Warren said.
The MTA for a year now
has tried to more take a more
focused attempt to curb fare
evasion, which has drawn
controversy among the criminal
justice community and
certain elected officials. The
authority has faced intense
backlash in recent months
as it has moved forward with
plans to hire 500 new MTA
police officers to, in part,
combat fare evasion, due to
fears of biased overpricing
in the transit system.
Several board members
called for an enforcement
and deployment plan for
new MTA officers before the
board votes to approve the
MTA’s next operating budget
for 2020, which greenlights
the authority to spend roughly
$249 million over the next
four years to hire the 500
cops.
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