A TRAIN ticket scam that is claimed to have netted villains £1m has been uncovered at Manchester's Piccadilly station.
Fraudsters were using stolen or cloned credit cards to buy tickets from the website thetrainline.com.
A team of `runners' would then collect them from automatic fast ticket machines at the station.
They then sold the tickets on to passengers for cash at a discount.
Tickets bought online from thetrainline.com can be collected at the station in a fast ticket machine - but the same credit card has to be put into the machine to obtain the ticket.
A former employee at Virgin Trains claims the racket went on for up to three years with the gang selling £40,000 worth of tickets in one week.
He says it could have raked in £1m.
Now rail executives say they have been able to stop the scam by using new laws to prosecute those who buy the tickets from the gang and also by tightening security procedures.
The former Virgin worker, who asked not to be named, said: "We calculated that in just one week, they got away with £40,000 worth of tickets.
"There were one or two gangs behind it all. They would get credit card numbers from people who work in garages and restaurants, buy the tickets, and then send runners to get them out of the machines."
The fraud came to light after an Angolan asylum seeker became the first person to be prosecuted under the new Fraud Act.
The Act allows people to be prosecuted for defrauding a ticket machine, which was not possible under previous legislation.
Father-of-three Ronaldo Macanda, 39, was given a conditional discharge by Manchester magistrates after pleading guilty to dishonestly making a false representation.
Macanda, of Bank House, Blackley, was arrested at Piccadilly nine hours after the new Act came in.
Thomas McCabe, defending, said Macanda had arrived in Britain last year and in November was given indefinite leave to stay. On the day he was caught he bought a reference number for a £65 ticket from a man in a Salford branch of McDonald's for just £25.
Mr McCabe said that Macanda was only a customer who had bought the number from the fraudsters.
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Showing comments 1 to 13 and replies | View All
alvinlwh (10/09/2007 at 09:56)
Edski Vega, Nottingham (10/09/2007 at 10:45)
The Catcher, In the Rye (10/09/2007 at 10:54)
Vendredi, Da Manc (10/09/2007 at 10:59)
As far as I can see the bloke bought one dodgy ticket worth £65 for £25. Hardly the same as perpetrating £1m worth of fraud, is it?
A conditional discharge for £40 worth of fraud sounds like a reasonable outcome. It's the man who sold him this reference number in Salford who really deserves to be put away.
Before you start acting as judge and jury try actually reading the article first next time.
GreggyFroggy, Paris - Singapore - Manchester - Melbourne (10/09/2007 at 11:04)
Joey, Ashton under Lyne, (10/09/2007 at 11:36)
The gentlemen in question is an ambassador for the people of his own country, here as a guest - perhaps if he had acted as such - peoples feelings would not be aroused.
J Sheldon, UK (10/09/2007 at 12:01)
Now the gangs have their excuse ready as long as they only carry one fast ticket at a time, having secreted the rest at a nearby drop or having a holder nearby.
How typical to target the end user of a scam otherwise, when some trains fares are a crime in themselves. When online credit/debit verification becomes compulsory, that will assist the card holder (last on the list of fraud prevention, if they are held responsible for loss).
Quasimodo's Backpack, Paris (10/09/2007 at 13:00)
Don't you have to submit your credit card number, including a 3 digit code, over the internet and have it verified by the card company?
The second is when the "runner" went to the station to collect his tickets he would need to be pretty swift as the unsuspecting customer would have left McDonalds or garage without his card and not even questioned its whereabouts.
When the card is presented don't you have to key in a PIN number at either the point of sale or at the machine in the station?
Finally where do these people perpertrating the scam advertise their services
as it must have been fairly widespread to net such a sum in a fairly short time?
Methinks the truth is closer to one individual trying something on and being so naive was easily caught out.
simon beardow (10/09/2007 at 14:34)
Transport Pool, Manchester (10/09/2007 at 16:34)
It does on occasion ask for the reference number given at time of purchase, or at least it used to, I have not had to do anything more than put the card in for the last 3 or 4 ticket purchases.
Not the most secure system.
Alan Crump, usa (10/09/2007 at 18:24)
A culprit has been caught.
New security measures are being introduced.
the "Brains" have not been caught and it will only be a matter of minutes before they figure out how to beat the new security measures.This scam will not stop and Virgin et all will just increase fares to cover the loses. In the end it is always the customer who pays.
East Riding Mancunian, Radcliffe (10/09/2007 at 21:46)
just joan, Manchester (11/09/2007 at 11:29)
I booked a ticket earlier this year with one card and by mistake I put in a different card when I collleted the ticket. The machine just give me the ticket.