Public transport subscription: Was it with fraud at the Germany ticket?

Ticket counterfeits, stolen account data, fake shops – criminals have driven a lot of shinds around the Germany ticket in recent years. According to the industry, this will soon be largely the end. “The majority of the problems will be cleared this year,” said the spokesman for the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV), Lars Wagner, the German Press Agency.

“The industry is precisely implementing the resolutions to increase IT security and thus close the gaps. We assume that this will succeed until June 30th. The D-Ticket is then largely forgery.”

The means of payment, on the other hand, is very dynamic, said Wagner. You will have to react to new developments. It is unclear how much the damage from Germany is in Germany. “At the moment, however, we have to assume a medium three -digit million amount a year.”

Around 13.5 million people currently have the 58 euro ticket in the subscription. The goal was actually to win around 15 million customers by the end of 2024.

“Observe the market intensively”

The Munich Transport and Tariff Association (MVV), for example, now sees itself well positioned. “Since we have implemented all the measures that lead to the connection of the fraud with us, the topic is currently not relevant for us,” said Managing Director Bernd Rosenbusch of the dpa. “We continue to watch the market intensively, but we currently have no cheating problem.” The decisions of the industry would have to be implemented quickly.

After a long back and forth, the industry had agreed on new IT standards against fraud in spring, of which significant steps are to be implemented by the end of the current month. From October at the latest from October, only Germany tickets will be valid that meet the new requirements, such as the Association of German Transport Companies, the Federal Association of Schisenahverkehr and the Association of Mofair, in which the competitors of Deutsche Bahn in particular were organized in April.

“This is the only way we can secure the income of the industry and protect the paying customers. We have to systematically prevent fraud cases such as ticket copies, counterfeits or non -reported sales,” it said. The industry will not publish details of the new security measures in order not to give fraudsters.

Website sold cheaper Germany tickets

The fraud on the D-Ticket.su website was caused a sensation, through which the Germany ticket was sold discounts for months. According to information from the industry, this was possible because the operators had given their hands into their hands the valid crypto key of a recognized ticket seller, whom it needed to sell the tickets.

How many tickets have been sold across the page is unclear. The page has been offline since the end of February, as can be seen from customer reviews on Trustpilot.com. After the fraud was blown up, the tickets sold via D-Ticket.su lost their validity. The new IT standards in the industry should prevent such fraud.

“Cases of fraud to an unknown extent”

With another stitch, the fraudsters use false or stolen account details when buying the ticket. Transport companies from all over Germany have outraged. In 2024, the Dresden Verkehrsbetriebe complained of economic damage of around 1.4 million euros.

The Rhine-Main Transport Association also “regularly recorded fraud cases in the SEPA direct debit”, as it was said at the time. RMV Managing Director Knut Ringat spoke of “fraud cases to an unknown extent” and damage to the millions. The RMV then introduced mandatory bank account or identity reviews when buying the Germany ticket – like many other providers. The precautions had a significant effect, it was now said on request.

Only recently had attempted “to obtain or sell or sell valid Germany tickets with stolen or fake payment data”. The security measures were then subsequently sharpened.

Trustpilot D-Ticket.su PM on IT measures of the public transport industry to be fraudulent at the German ticket