Its been a while since I blogged. Got sucked into Twitter in a big way thanks to a Mr Jonny Rose (@98rosjon) and an underlying bit of transient OCD.
I have recently discovered that TFL (@tflofficial) are routinely, regularly and knowingly defrauding Londoners of Oyster credit. I am not a legal expert, so I am not sure if it is fraud or theft. My guess would be it fits the definition of theft - at least it matched the definition I was taught in A Level Law a long time ago - "Intent to permanently deprive someone of their property".
So how does the TFL Scam work?
Firstly, you get bullied into adopting Oyster as a means of payment for travel because of exorbitantly over-priced non-Oyster fares and the withdrawal of paper based one day travelcards from sale at ticket vendors outside the TFL or national rail network (ie - you can't buy paper 1 day travelcard from a newsagent anymore).
Once a mark has unwittingly signed up to Oyster, TFL have introduced or at least failed to resolve a long standing software glitch which nets them untold amounts of money from unwitting passengers using Oyster for late night journeys on the suburban rail network.
Even if you have a capped Oyster card, if you venture home late chances are you are paying £16.80 for that day's Oyster use, rather than £8.00! (£16.80 gets you a full week and change on the 24 hour New York Transit system, by the way)
Why will I pay £16.80 when its capped at £8.00 for a travelcard?
Let me explain by example using a recent Journey I made. 2nd December was out celebrating my fiancées birthday. At end of night got a bus from Piccadilly Circus to Victoria. That bus journey took me to the £8.00 cap. I then made my way to the platform for the 2am train to East Croydon. I touched in at Victoria. 30 minutes later I touched out via an open gate at East Croydon station. I started the day with almost £20 on my card. The next morning I was declined from boarding a bus. I walked to East Croydon station and asked for a print-out of recent history and found I had correctly touched in at Victoria and despite touching out at the open gate at East Croydon 30 minutes later, that exit counted as re-entry to the network. I was therefore charged £4.40 for failing to complete the journey from Victoria and a further £4.40 for failing to complete the journey I 'started' at East Croydon.
Interestingly, the dreaded "double beep" sound which you hear when you have no Oyster credit was echoing through the barrier constantly as late night revellers streamed off the train and through the open barrier - dozens of times in the few seconds I was there. This suggests lots of travellers on pay as you go were suffering the same fate, but because they had low credit - it was alerting to them of having insufficient funds to "touch in" for their next journey.
Please see attached photo for an example relating to the incident outlined above.
Now it gets interesting, the scam is quite sophisticated, or so it would seem. As, it happens on the open barriers which is a sign of an unmanned entry or exit point at a suburban rail station. Most are unmanned only late at night. Most people travelling late at night - have been out drinking - most people that have been out drinking - will not be paying much attention - therefore TFL maximises opportunities to perpetrate its ongoing fraud/theft undetected and unchallenged.
I have done a bit of digging mainly on Twitter and identified that the problem is not isolated to East Croydon but other passengers at Purley and Selhurst stations have suffered the same fate, multiple times.
So, the question is - why aren't TFL doing anything about it? Maybe they don't know you say?
I spoke to a TFL Customer Service rep today. It took me over 17 minutes to get my money back. No compensation, no apology, nothing. When I asked the gentleman to escalate the issue he kindly confirmed that all refunds are logged so he had "absolutely no doubt his superiors were aware of the problem".
I guess the next question is when is a problem, not a problem?
When the cost benefit analysis proves you are making fare more money by not addressing it. No negative PR, few claims for refunds - because it takes 20 minutes to get through on the phone. A win win for TFL.
So, my questions to TFL are:
1) For how long have you been stealing credit from Oyster PAYG passengers on the suburban rail network in London?
2) How much have you fraudulently obtained from said passengers, in total?
3) How many individual Oyster cards have been affected?
4) How long have you "known" about the problem?
5) How much negative PR must be generated in order for you to do something about it?
6) Will you reunite passengers with their missing money automatically?
7) Will you then distribute other misappropriated funds to the local communities in proportion to the amount taken from passengers in each local authority area?
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If you have been affected by this scam and can prove it - please post a comment and your twitter handle on this blog. We can fix this. Also please tweet this with #oysterfraud
Since the last blog post flagging the issue of #OysterFraud in Croydon a number of victims have come forward and several journalists are now investigating. 
It is becoming clear that the issue relates to late night travel and passengers exiting and touching out via open ticket barriers. E.g If you exit East Croydon station late at night via the open oversize luggage barrier on the left - when you touch out - this will be counted by TfL as a touch in. Adding a tally of 2 incomplete Oyster journeys to your bill and charging you £8.80 in penalty fares, even on a capped Oyster card. 
