Fraudsters selling fake train tickets for less than half price on Dark Web as probe proves they fool railway
COMMUTERS' rail fares are being driven up by fake train tickets sold on the dark web, it can be revealed today.
A Sun Online investigation uncovered tickets being sold for 50 per cent less than the real prices, which are set to be hiked by another 3.1 per cent on Wednesday.
One rail boss said the scam hits law-abiding commuters in the pocket as they are forced to "subsidise" people travelling illegally.
And a British Transport Police chief said the problem of cyber fares is increasing - and warned anyone who is tempted they face jail if caught.
To see how well the problem is being policed on the railways, The Sun Online travelled with a fake ticket to see if we got caught.
Reporter Dan Hall bought a fake month-long season pass between London and Cambridge - and successfully travelled almost 60 miles with the dodgy ticket.
With thousands potentially using fake tickets across the nation's railway network right now, service operators could be missing out on £200million a year in rail fares.
Robert Nisbet, Regional Director of the Rail Delivery Group, which represents the rail industry, said: “Every year fare dodgers cost the railway about £200m, money which could otherwise be spent underpinning investment to build the better railway everyone wants."
"Dodging fares is unfair on the vast majority of passengers who pay the correct fare. They don’t feel they should subsidise people who try to get away without paying."
Hooky season tickets and travelcards can be bought easily and cheaply on the dark web — an online underworld of black markets where all manner of illicit goods from guns and passports to drugs and child abuse images are sold with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
For a fake train ticket, you place an encrypted order with the online crook - letting them know which stations you want to travel between, when you need the pass to work, and a delivery address to send it to.
The anonymous dealer will then give you a quote for the counterfeit ticket - before listing your made-to-order forged pass on the site.
You then click to purchase it just like you would on any other online retailer's website, the only difference being you pay with Bitcoin which is less traceable than sterling.
WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU'RE CAUGHT USING FAKE TRAIN TICKETS?
Using fake train tickets can land you in a lot of trouble with the law.
In 2015, contractor Mark Mason was made to pay back £17,884 for using dodgy train and parking tickets.
Mason had used 85 fake tickets to travel between 2011 and 2013 - and even had the gall to go first class.
Cops raided his home and found he'd been counterfeiting tickets with design software on his computer.
Mason from Doncaster, South Yorkshire was handed a six month sentence suspended for two years.
He also faced a year in prison if he couldn't stump up the cash within six months of the ruling.
The judge even ordered him to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work and attend a 12-day restorative justice course.
Our fake cost just over a third of the price of the genuine article.
The fake standard class month-long season ticket between any London station and Cambridge was bought for just shy of £180.
A legitimate version of the same season pass would cost £475.40 - a total of £295.40 more.
Meanwhile, an annual season ticket between London and Birmingham via any route costs £10,564 — compared to a dark web fake which costs closer to £3,000.
Forged monthly travelcards for the London Underground are also being sold online, for a third of the price of an official TfL card.
Despite commuters being tempted by dark web fakes, cops have warned anyone caught could be prosecuted for fraud and face up to five years behind bars.
And it is easy to get caught - the magnetic strip on the reverse of the card won't work if you try to put it into the ticket barriers.
So instead, success hinges on the traveller being allowed through the gates by station staff.
When our investigator arrived at King's Cross Station to get on board, he was armed with an excuse about keeping the pass near his phone (which can reportedly mess up the tickets).
But for the entirety of the two-hour-round trip, no one challenged him on the validity of the card.
The reporter even went up to a group of three members of staff to ask if the ticket would allow him to get a certain train to Cambridge, and make sure they got a close look at it.
Their unanimous response came back: "Yeah, should be fine."
A total of six different members of railway staff saw the ticket and waved our investigator through; not one even asked him to try it in the automatic gates.
Despite not getting caught out for our counterfeit, British Transport Police's DI Jeremy Banks said officers take such acts "very seriously".
He told us: "We are aware of criminals using the dark web to exploit the railways, and we take all reports seriously.
"Our dedicated Cyber Crime Unit works closely with the rail industry as well as police forces nationally to investigate fraud and bring offenders before the courts."
This year, 4,500 fare dodgers were caught illegally using Manchester's Metrolink system alone - with ticket inspectors fining an average of 150 people every day in August.
In 2017, Tfl said fare evasion cost Londoners around £70million a year as TfL itself lost 1.8% revenue from the illegal trips.
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And 2019 is the 30th anniversary of the introduction of Penalty Fares, brought in to deter fraudsters.
A Penalty Fare is £20 or twice the price of a single ticket to the next station if you're caught on a train.
In 2015, city banker Simon King pleaded guilty to committing an £8,000 fraud over two years in which he flashed a photocopied travel card to staff at the platforms.
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