Possible Metro SmartTrip Scam
Sep 29, 2013 | 4:26 pm
#1
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Possible Metro SmartTrip Scam
I was with a friend at Union Station's Metro stop earlier this week and she tapped her card and went to put money on it. It showed a beginning balance of $6.35 then she put in a $5 and it dropped to $1.35. She told a WMATA employee and he said there's some new scam where people will tap their card once, then leave without tapping it the second time and this causes the money a subsequent user puts on a card to go onto the scammer's card. I don't know if it's actually true but the WMATA employee seemed to think it was.
Sep 29, 2013 | 9:29 pm
#2
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I was with a friend at Union Station's Metro stop earlier this week and she tapped her card and went to put money on it. It showed a beginning balance of $6.35 then she put in a $5 and it dropped to $1.35. She told a WMATA employee and he said there's some new scam where people will tap their card once, then leave without tapping it the second time and this causes the money a subsequent user puts on a card to go onto the scammer's card. I don't know if it's actually true but the WMATA employee seemed to think it was.
That said, I hope your friend got her $5 back because that's clearly not supposed to happen.
Sep 29, 2013 | 11:15 pm
#3
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Any card would need to be tapped twice in order to get value added (once upon approaching the machine and again after adding the $), so I don't see how her funds could end up on the card of the person that used the machine before her.
That said, I hope your friend got her $5 back because that's clearly not supposed to happen.
That said, I hope your friend got her $5 back because that's clearly not supposed to happen.
Sep 30, 2013 | 7:13 am
#4
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Not really, because fares paid with a paper fare card are a buck more than those paid with a Smartrip card.
Sep 30, 2013 | 12:26 pm
#5
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Not quite sure how that would work -- the amount on the SmarTrip card doesn't update until the card is tapped the second time. Otherwise, the transaction times out and cancels.
But a paper card's value can be transferred to a SmarTrip card.
In other SmarTrip news, card prices go down to $2 tomorrow, which means that anyone doing even just one round-trip on Metro would be well advised to buy a SmarTrip card:
http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/new...ReleaseID=5547
The $2 cards can be purchased at sales offices (e.g., CVS); the vending machines in stations will sell the cards for $10 with $8 of transit value.
In other SmarTrip news, card prices go down to $2 tomorrow, which means that anyone doing even just one round-trip on Metro would be well advised to buy a SmarTrip card:
http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/new...ReleaseID=5547
The $2 cards can be purchased at sales offices (e.g., CVS); the vending machines in stations will sell the cards for $10 with $8 of transit value.
Oct 2, 2013 | 11:39 am
#7
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I might believe that failing to tap the card a second time would result in the new funds being given to the next person to use the machine.
Nov 8, 2013 | 1:15 pm
#8
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But the friend lost $5 that was already on her card plus the $5 that she tried to add. She started with $6.35, added $5 for $11.35 but ended with $1.35 on the card. Getting $4 is less than half of what she lost.
I might believe that failing to tap the card a second time would result in the new funds being given to the next person to use the machine.
I might believe that failing to tap the card a second time would result in the new funds being given to the next person to use the machine.
I've had/heard of situations where inserted money doesn't properly go onto the card - but there's no way for those machines to debit a SmartTrip card, so if it said "$6.35" when she tapped it - it had at least that much on it when she left (I suppose, in some crazy universe, the card or machine could have malfunctioned at that exact time. But I find that pretty odd)