Fraud with the bavarian ticket costs the railroad at least 500 euros every year, according to its own estimates.000 euro. The background is a "nationwide phenomenon with changing regional emphases", the railroad's regional press offices explained in response to a request for information. The bahn as a "tugboat fraudsters use one of the country's tickets several times with different passengers and thus collect money again and again.
A bavarian ticket actually allows up to five passengers to travel through bavaria for a day on local trains – but the passengers may not be swapped during the trip. The company is now using undercover investigators against the fraudsters. Passenger advocates criticize this.
The railroad does not yet have nationwide figures – but comparable tickets are also available in other countries. The railroad assumes that about 30 to 50 so-called tugboats are active in bavaria, as reinhard sab of DB regio said in munich on wednesday. According to the company, the fraudsters take in about 100 euros every day they are on the job.
Undercover investigators follow the heels of fraudsters
Undercover investigators from DB sicherheit and DB regio follow the heels of the fraudsters. After the first legal trip with a travel group, the touts set off on the next trip with new passengers. Civilian patrols strike at ticket checks on trains: in eleven operations so far, eight touts and 18 passengers have been caught. The perpetrators were charged with fraud and banned from all stations in bavaria. Passengers had to pay 40 euros for fare evasion.
Heidi tischmann from the german traffic club takes a critical view of the deployment of the civilian patrols: "they are forced to take tough action because they themselves are under surveillance." There is no room for goodwill. The railroads must intervene if there are attempts at fraud, said gerd aschoff, spokesman for the passenger association pro bahn. But: "the impression is that the means are very drastic."
In bavaria, the bavarian ticket scammers were not an issue until a little over a year ago. "There are colleagues in other regions who have been tackling this for much longer", railroad official sab said. "In schleswig-holstein explicitly, it happened much earlier." The railroad in bavaria became aware of the situation through media reports and information from employees and customers who complained about the tugs.