Forged Subway Passes - Boston

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/05/19/mass_ag_man_reaped_millions_with_fake_mbta_passes_1305843490/

by obtino • 15 years ago

30 28 15 years ago

boston.com

wccrawford2• 15 years ago

So, to recap, if that commuter had told the operator to mind his own business, this would still be going on.

Also, the T doesn't bother to count the number of passengers and compare it to the number of tickets sold.

Also, the T's management doesn't read Craigslist, and hasn't for years.

sp332• 15 years ago

Also, the T doesn't bother to count the number of passengers and compare it to the number of tickets sold.

Passengers can get on & off the train at multiple points along the line. Counting passengers would not be very helpful.

kd0amg• 15 years ago

I imagine it's also tricky to verify by counting when they sell daily, weekly, and monthly passes.

wccrawford2• 15 years ago

They manage to check the tickets for all those passengers.

I've seen it in action.

quesera• 15 years ago

MBTA is an embarrassment.

The cards have serial numbers, but they weren't checked? Seriously? Not even in the nightly audit report? They do a nightly audit report, right?

Billsf showed BART how to run an electronic ticketing system 15 years ago. Of course, he got prosecuted for it. But MBTA could surely have learned a thing or two. Amateurs.

ajays• 15 years ago

It's simple, really. It's not their money. If they run short of funds, they'll just dig into the taxpayers' wallets.

sspencer• 15 years ago

Got it in 1. MBTA is 8 billion dollars in debt. They are the MA poster child for "too big too fail."

mcritz2• 15 years ago

I couldn't agree more.

The MBTA trains leak when they get wet. Every day there are delays due to "signal problems". There's a major crash on the Green Line annually. Getting the basics of electronic billing is about fourth on the list of things that the MBTA needs to address.

woodrow• 15 years ago

I'm actually kind of disappointed this wasn't more complicated, like actually hacking the system or altering cards (http://web.mit.edu/zacka/www/mbta.html, http://tech.mit.edu/V128/N30/subway/Defcon_Presentation.pdf) instead of just opportunism.

eli• 15 years ago

Unfortunately the real world usually isn't that interesting.

Crooks in DC figured out that paper farecards had the same bits encoded over and over for the length of the magnetic strip. So they'd get a high value card and literally splice it into multiple high-value cards. http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/07/washington_dc_...

Anechoic• 15 years ago

Getting a free ride doesn't have to be all that complicated. In the course of consulting work with a number of different transit agencies I accidentally found a way to get free rides on those systems with a $20 investment.

ynniv6• 15 years ago

The passes described are neither "fake" nor "forged" - they were created by a contractor hired to create them, using the system that creates all T passes. The contractor wasn't authorized to create these, but we could call this a licensing issue. It isn't obvious that this is a criminal case (even tho it is being prosecuted as such) unless the MBTA gets special treatment under law. The details make this look more like a copyright violation than a counterfeiting case.

patio112• 15 years ago

This is hacker logic, and specifically, hacker-who-is-committed-to-piracy-being-noncriminal logic. The actual legal system will look at this like printing fraudulent checks on authentic check paper. The illegality of this is about as controversial a proposition as "Javascript is a programming language."

If a lawyer told you Javascript was not a programming language, you'd immediately think "Cripes, he's a bozo."

ynniv6• 15 years ago

This is hacker logic

I would expect it to be hacker logic, but I still don't agree. Company X hired a contractor to produce keys. Contractor Y produced more keys than he was authorized to produce, and sold them on the side. Are those additional keys "fraudulent"? Was he authorized to produce and sell any number of them as long as he paid for them? Clearly he had no intention of paying for these, but that doesn't make the keys he sold on the side any less valid than the keys he was authorized to produce. He is certainly liable for his contractual obligations (the money owed per key), which the article states the MBTA is trying to recoup.

The actual legal system will look at this like printing fraudulent checks on authentic check paper.

In this case, by the payroll company that was in charge of printing checks. Does that make them fraudulent? Is cashing them a crime? I would expect the payroll company to be liable for the damages, but I would not expect the company to be prosecuted for fraud.

You have picked a particularly poor example because an unauthorized check deprives the account holder of the value of a check. An unauthorized MBTA pass deprives the MBTA of the possible revenue that a customer purchasing a discounted pass might have contributed, and additionally increases the operating costs (generally fixed) of the MBTA by little to none.

specifically, hacker-who-is-committed-to-piracy-being-noncriminal logic.

To my knowledge, most piracy cases are civil cases. I don't recall any being prosecuted by the Attorneys General.

(EDIT: I am wrong. High value for-profit cases are prosecuted as criminal offenses by the FBI under Title 17 §506.)

The illegality of this is about as controversial a proposition as "Javascript is a programming language."

I don't know what kind of argumentation that is supposed to be, but it doesn't suit someone of your stature. This is a complex situation that few or none of us are properly equipped to resolve, but I still expect reasonable discussions, or else what's the point of being here?

lionhearted2• 15 years ago

> ...unless the MBTA gets special treatment under law.

Agree with the other reply, the "hacker logic" comment.

Also worth noting as a pragmatic matter - throughout pretty much all of recorded history, enterprises with a close working relationship with the government have always gotten favorable legal treatment.

For instance, in Las Vegas, borrowing money from the casino and not paying them back is criminal! No joke. Why? Because the casinos fund the vast majority of Nevada income and have a close relationship with the state.

This isn't anything new. State-charted, state-controlled, or significantly-revenue-generating companies have pretty much always gotten favorable treatment under the law. If you really feel the need to screw with someone, you generally don't want them to be friends with the government.

ynniv6• 15 years ago

Agree with the other reply, the "hacker logic" comment.

Why is logic bad? Logic will be used by both the prosecution and the defense, as well as the judge. They will also employ their individual preferences when selecting their arguments, but logic is not simply ignored.

To accept that the State is strong and does whatever powerful interests desire is spineless. We know it to be true, but to accept it is to be either complicit or cowardly.

Forged Subway Passes - Boston

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