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BRAD ROSS: Thank you Sarah. Ladies and gentleman, thank you for coming. I first want to thank
the Toronto Police Service for the efforts they extended to us in this investigation.
TTC takes fare evasion and the counterfeiting of its fare very seriously. We have an obligation
and responsibility to our law abiding customers who buy their fare from legitimate sources
to take action against those who evade paying their fare.
Over the next few years, the TTC will be moving to Presto. That electronic fare card will
bring an end to counterfeiting on the TTC stemming an estimated $5 million in revenue
loss both in counterfeit passes and fake tokens. In the meantime the TTC has one message for
its customers today: buyer beware. If a deal sounds too good to be true, for
example, a $50 Metropass for sale online, than that deal probably is too good to be
true. And the message for those who traffic in counterfeit
passes and fare media and those who purchase counterfeit fare media knowingly and use them
in the system: you will be caught as the 62 arrests and 196 criminal charges to date will
attest. I'm now going to introduce you Mark Russell,
our staff sergeant from our Special Investigations Unit, who will take you through this investigation
and explain some the... some of the... talk about the items that we seized and some of
the work they did together with Toronto Police in bringing an end to some serious counterfeiting
in Toronto, Mark. MARK RUSSELL: Thank you Brad and good afternoon
ladies and gentleman and thanks for you interest. I'm just going to give a bit of an overview
of this investigation and then let PC Moynagh talk in more detail.
In 2009, the TTC was being hammered with counterfeit Metropasses and quite a few arrests were made
at that time and some labs were taken down. But as a result of that some significant changes
to the design of the Metropass were made incorporating holograms to beef up the security features.
That kept us out of trouble and away from the counterfeits for about two years and in
mid to late 2011 we started to see a significant increase of counterfeit Metropasses and they
were using pretty good quality holograms as part of their tool kit.
So the Special Investigations Unit, we receive all the reports of counterfeit fare media...
Those reports come from our observant frontline surface vehicle operators: buses, streetcar
drivers and our subway station collectors as well as transit enforcement officers who
do routine fare enforcement. We receive tips through our customer service
line and also tips through the Crime Stoppers program. And in the fall of 2013 we had a
pretty substantial intelligence database built up and we approached the Toronto Police Service
Transit Patrol Unit and asked for some assistance. In doing some target enforcement towards making
some arrests of people trafficking in these passes and working towards building intelligence
and finding the perpetrators, people who were making these...
So as a result of our request two officers from the Transit Patrol Unit were dedicated
to the Special Investigations Unit of the TTC and based on the intelligence analysis
targeted enforcement took place and follow up was done with the sellers of the Metropasses.
Where the grounds existed, everybody that was caught using the passes or selling the
passes were charged criminally. Typically the persons, the people using the passes were
charged with fraud under $5,000 and property obtained by crime and uttering a forged document.
Just to reiterate what Brad said the TTC's position with this is, you know, it's buyer
beware, there are no deals on Metropasses. There is legitimate passes being sold on Kijiji
and different forums but it is buyer beware. The swipe feature of the Metropasses, the
mag stripe, has never been compromised so a sure way of identifying an authentic pass
is if it activates an automatic turnstile. Before you buy one or sell one you just have
to ask yourself: is it worth it? These 62 people that are facing charges are all before
the courts paying for lawyers, they've been fingerprinted and photographed for saving
a few dollars - is it worth it? So thank you, I turn it over to Bob.
CONSTABLE BOB MOYNAGH: Thanks Mark. My name is Bob Moynagh, I'm a police constable
with the Transit Patrol Unit of the Toronto Police Service.
I just have some statistics for you based on our four month effort: 62 persons were
arrested, I can tell you that 39 arrests occurred at subway stations. 16 arrests on surface
vehicles. The 39 arrests occurring at subway stations occurred literally throughout the
system. The majority of the arrests were at Scarborough Town Centre followed by Dufferin,
Sherbourne, Victoria Park, College station, Lawrence West station.
There was no specific geographic location. Similar to the buses the 16 arrests took place
on buses the majority of which were on Finch West but they also happened on the Jane bus,
the Lawrence East bus and the Sheppard East bus.
I can quickly advise you of the average age of the persons arrested was 29 years of age.
And that's pretty much all I have in regards to the numbers.
The blue passes for December was our largest seizure that was a person that was arrested
for trafficking forged documents. And upon being searched upon arrest he was
found to be in possession of 56 counterfeit December Metropasses and those have been signed
out of our evidence locker and brought for you here today.
REPORTER:Constable can you tell us a a little about the group of people involved in this?
Tell us about the connections, how they knew each other, how this got through that group?
MOYNAGH: The majority of the people who were arrested for trafficking the fake passes is
it was just a social network of friends, not necessarily social media per say but a friend
of a friend, someone would get a number and using different investigative techniques we
were able to arrange a meet with them and they unknowingly sold to police or TTC investigators.
They were subsequently arrested. REPORTER: How much were they selling the passes
for? MOYNAGH: Generally about half the value of
the pass REPORTER:Have these arrests on either subways
or buses were they selling the passes on these buses?
MOYNAGH:No, the majority of the arrests... they were 55 people arrested for presenting
a counterfeit Metropass for their fare and there was 7 people that were arrested separate
to actually being on the transit system for trafficking in the passes.
REPORTER: Of those 55 people do you think most of them knew they were using counterfeit
passes? MOYNAGH:Absolutely. There were various things
that we look for that we don't necessarily disclose when we speak about the Metropass.
There are security features built within and there are certain traits that we look for
in the average passenger. Generally people who do not swipe their Metropass we'll look
at that Metropass because as Brad or as Mark mentioned the mag strip has not been compromised
at this point. REPORTER: IF you believe someone is truly
naive and they're using it for the first time can they still be arrested for using a counterfeit
pass? MOYNAGH: We met very few people of that ilk
in the last several months. But as the main theme here: buyer beware. If you meet someone
at a Tim Hortons or a McDonald's and buy a Metropass for half its face value you got
to figure out something is going on. Especially if its early in the month when the value of
the pass is at its highest. REPORTER: Of the people who were arrested
for trafficking is there any way of knowing how many passes they sold overall?
MOYNAGH:Not really. Like I say the December passes here that is the highest quantity of
passes that we found on various persons that we arrested.
REPORTER: (Inaudible) MOYNAGH:No, as mentioned earlier the TTC look
at it as a total loss to the system as tar as revenue that they are not collecting. We
would just have to count the passes on the table and then multiply by the face value.
REPORTER: Inaudible... They look pretty legit MOYNAGH:As I told you the investigation is
very much ongoing. We're very much interested in hearing from members of the public who
have information on people who are selling who are making or selling the passes.
And we encourage members of the public to call Crime Stoppers and give that information
to the police. REPORTER: The people arrested for trafficking
are they the ones believed to be producing them as well?
MOYNAGH:Not necessarily. REPORTER: So we don't know where the passes
were made, is that fair to say? MOYNAGH: It's fair to say that this investigation
is ongoing and we're hoping to be back here in a few months with more information.
REPORTER: So no labs shut down like you did in 2009?
REPORTER: Just looking at the passes what are the obvious signs, how do you tell a counterfeit
one, how do you know? MOYNAGH:As mentioned it primarily comes down
to the inherent security features. The TTC typically don't reveal all the features of
that but there are things that we can check visually and it's a fairly quick analysis
to determine if it's fake or not. REPORTER: Is there something that the average
person if they don't know if they were to spot something on the card to look out for?
MOYNAGH: The biggest thing is that you bought it from a legitimate source either from an
authorized retailer or a transit station. Buying it second hand or if you're borrowing
it from a friend just run it through the automated reader. Like I say, none of the counterfeits
I've come across have been able to compromise the mag stripe.
MARK RUSSELL: I can speak to that from the TTC perspective. There are a couple of features
that the TTC is willing to share so that if people find themselves in a situation and
want to know if there pass is counterfeit. There is a couple of things. I guess, primarily,
the swipe feature, REPORTER: Can you grab the pass to showcase
... Can you compare it to a real one? RUSSELL: Yeah sure
So that's a fake one, this is a real one. One of the tells is authentic passes are glossy
on one side and have a flat finish on the back. A matte finish. All the counterfeits
we've encountered so far are glossy on both sides. The mag stripe is just ink that is
laid on there. That may be a little difficult to tell for the average person. Another quick
tell is a feel-test. Authentic passes the serial number and the price in that top point
up there -- it's raised. It's a raised ink, its printed on through a separate process.
And on all the counterfeits we've encountered so far it's flat so you can feel texture there
at all. Those two items should be enough for any patron
to tell the difference. REPORTER:Can you hold them up side by side,
thanks You guys said you had a spike in 2011 after
the sort of lull... RUSSELL: Not so much a spike but a gradual
increase REPORTER: So can you give us an idea numbers
wise what you're seeing and numbers wise what sort of increase you saw since the crackdown
began in the fall? RUSSELL: I'm qualifying this by saying these
are approximate numbers but we were in the last year and a half or so we've been seeing
150 to 200 reports come through our office and as I indicated earlier those reports are
reports from observant bus drivers seeing them on their route, streetcar operators,
subway station collectors and our transit enforcement officers. And the thing with Metropasses
is like we don't see them at the end of the cycle, whereas tokens we can give you an accurate
count of how many were counterfeits because we can pull them out of our revenue stream.
So, we've been doing this a long time and we just have to do some estimating, it's educated
guesses but I would say that if we're getting a 150 or 200 reports at a very conservative
level that's maybe ten percent of what's out there.
And that's based on intelligence we're getting from anonymous sources, people that have been
seen with boxes of them. We get our information from all different places.
REPORTER: What's your message to the other 90 percent of people who are out there carrying
fake passes right now? RUSSELL: Is it worth it? Is it worth being
charged criminally for saving 50 or 60 dollars? I mean we always have two ways to go, we can
file criminal charges or bylaw charges can be laid as well in relation to this. And right
off the bat if a bylaw charge is laid that is a fine of over 400 dollars.
REPORTER: What is the bylaw charge? RUSSELL:What's the wording,Chris? Use altered
fare media. REPORTER: Why have you chosen criminal charges
in this case instead of bylaw charges? RUSSELL: In my opinion and historically the
criminal charges send a stronger message. It's the appropriate charge.
It is fraud, it is uttering a forged document and because the goal of the investigation
is to work towards the back end it gives us some leverage. So, anyway, for this project
that is the route we took. Where appropriate the criminal charges were
laid. REPORTER: Are police still going to be at
stations. I was at Dufferin today and there was some people who had seen police more often
now, is that sort of the plan in order to keep an eye on this?
RUSSELL: Well, it's always part of the enforcement effort of both the TTC transit officers as
well as the Transit Patrol Unit. It's resource-driven and call-driven. I mean
the resources are there or they're not there. There is no targeted resources right now.
REPORTER: ... mandatory for anyone with a Metropass because it seems people have obviously
been going through the operator and showing their Metropass. Should you change the rules
then to better monitor that? BRAD ROSS: So a couple of things around fare
evasion in general. We are, in addition to getting back our special constable status
for our transit enforcement officers, we're also building the resources with respect to
fare inspection. So the new streetcar that come online later
this year and will roll out across all 11 streetcar lines over the next five to six
years will all be proof of payment. In other words you will not interact with
the operator of the streetcar you will have to tap a Presto card or demonstrate payment
through a transfer or receipt. And that will be through fare inspectors,
a new budgeted approved allotment by the end of this year in 20 fare inspectors.
Fare enforcement around fare evasion and counterfeiting is something we as I said earlier we take
very seriously. It is something that does require resources,
though, we do know that people do evade their fare.
We get reports from customers who are concerned about that. They pay their fare, why are these
people getting away with not paying theirs? It is something we do take to heart and do
recognize as an issue and we are doing our best to address.
To get back to making swiping mandatory I don't think at this point I don't think there
is any need to try to re-educate , if you will, our customers about how to behave with
a Metropass because today when you board a streetcar or a bus it's simply a flash.
You simply hold up the pass and show it to the operator of those vehicles or the collectors
at a subway station for example. If it's in your wallet you just hold it up
so we don't want to have to re-educate people only to have them in three or four years have
them do a whole new system of education, if you will, tapping with your Presto fare card.
You know, as Mark said earlier, you know, buy your fare media, whether it is tokens
or passes or tickets, from TTC collectors. All of our stations have debit and credit
capabilities. We're going to add tokens and tokens and other fare media to that debit/credit
offering this Spring. We have pass vending machines in many of our
stations. Over 1,000 authorized fare media sellers in the city.
So there is no reason not to buy your fare from a legitimate source.
REPORTER: What do you mean by these passes were made locally?
MOYNAGH: I believe an earlier question was if the counterfeit passes were being made
overseas and it is our belief that they are likely being made in the GTA.
REPORTER: (Inaudible)... what security features of the cards make it more difficult... (Inaudible)
ROSS: We've done a number of things over the years, we added the hologram, the hologram's
dimensions and location on the pass. The shape changes every month.
We've added the clip feature so, there is a clip feature for those who are visually
impaired to know the front of the pass and how to swipe it.
It has a rounder, softer edge for a legitimate pass, it's got a hard edge for those that
are fake. We put a sticker on all of our passes to prevent
what we call renting of passes that's a security feature that we've added.
And there are other features, that of course, we don't discuss so as not to tip off counterfeiters.
Whether there is any additional, new features I can't really speak to that right now.
I think we're moving towards a Presto fare card.
We will continue to do enforcement like we are today and make announcements today of
196 criminal charges being laid is pretty significant.
I think it sends a very strong message that the TTC and the Toronto Police Service take
this... very, very seriously. REPORTER: (Inaudible)
MOYNAGH: I can advise you that as stated earlier that arrests took place literally all over
the city. As far as the arrests that occurred in subway
stations, Scarborough Town Centre had the most. But then on the other end of town at
Dufferin there were almost as many made at Dufferin so we don't think it's a problem
within a specific area of the city. It's clearly a problem on the system.
REPORTER: Brad, don't you think you'd catch more people if you made everybody swipe on
the subway? They haven't mastered the whole swiping system so if everybody all the time
swiped wouldn't you catch more? ROSS: Well, as I was saying earlier, we have
collectors in our station so people sometimes have their pass in their wallet,. You know
the vast, vast majority of our customers are, of course, law abiding and they have their
pass. So, we don't make things overly difficult
for customers. We do fare enforcement. We see people lined
up at a collector booth with a Metropass to flash their pass.
That's a pretty good indication that perhaps that mag stripe is not working and that pass
needs to be checked. So we do that kind of enforcement.
I don't think from an organization that is so customer-focused and customer-led that
we want to burden our customers with having them do something that... for what... we assume
you may be criminals so we want to ensure you're not?
I don't think that's the message that we want to send.
And certainly the next three to four years, the Presto fare card will be coming online.
That will require the customer to tap on when they enter the system.
Whether it's a bus or a streetcar or a subway station. You'll get a visual and an audible
sound to indicate whether that tap is legitimate and the Presto fare card and fare cards in
general have never been compromised. And so, we look forward to being able to move
to that kind of system. REPORTER: (Inaudible)
ROSS: There is no policy decision before us that is going to make our customers swipe
into a subway station. REPORTER: How do you do it then before the
Presto card comes (inaudible)? ROSS: So a typical example of doing enforcement
and making arrests, checking passes, sending a very clear message to those who are considering
buying counterfeit fare media. You will get caught, you will face serious
criminal charges. As Mark said, is it worth the 50 or 60 dollar
savings? We don't think so.