WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES DECEMBER 26, 2019 5
MetroCard scammers cost MTA millions, offi cials say
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
MetroCard vending machines to
sell swipes at turnstiles. The crime
costs the MTA between roughly $30
million and $40 million each year,
Pat Warren, the MTA’s new chief
safety officer, said Monday.
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
evasion-related 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 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 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 swipesellers
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.
File photo
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