Subway Clerks Found Selling Bogus Metro Passes

Two ticket clerks for Budapest public transport company BKV Rt sold forged passes to unwitting customers, also unwittingly. According to daily Népszabadság, the "official" counterfeiting happened after ticket clerks "bought back" bogus monthly passes from fraudsters and then re-sold them to other, more innocent straphangers. The fiddle was brought to light when a passenger was caught using a forged pass, and forced to pay a Ft 2,000 (€8) fine to the very company that had gotten them into trouble in the first place.

The problem was traced back to some enterprising, if modest, scamsters who told two ticket clerks that someone in their family had bought them a 30-day pass after they had already bought one, and asked if they could return the unwanted passes. Both clerks agreed, and gave the small-time-crooks "their" Ft 5,950 "back."

"Ticket clerks mustn't buy any ticket or pass back, exactly because we want to avoid cases like these," ticket department head Mihály Lucza told Népszabadság after the swindle was exposed. Meanwhile, the two ticket clerks were fired. "There have always been and always will be counterfeiters and cheaters. At least the company's employees shouldn't help them," Lucza said.