Neill Wood wrote to uk.transport.london on Wed, 1 Sep 2004:

A thought has occured to me while reading this thread. People get on
buses and swipe their Oyster cards without removing them from the
wallet. Is there any indictation apart from the bleep to the driver
that the card is genuine? If you were to have a fake card you can just
pass it in front of the reader and get on free. If the driver is busy
or there is a lot of noise he's got going to hear the bleep. If an
inspector gets on, do you only have to flash you card at him? Have I
uncovered a major fraud possibility here?

Normally the inspectors have hand-held readers that read your card for
you, and tell them what you last swiped and when.

What I want to know is, do you have to take the card out of your
handbag/wallet to use it? I know it can/should be used in its own
wallet, but on the Continent, where similar systems are in use, you see
people just brushing their bags against the reader, not bothering to
take the card out at all. I don't know how many layers will inhibit
reading!
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/

In message , at 11:47:15 on Wed, 1
Sep 2004, Annabel Smyth remarked:
What I want to know is, do you have to take the card out of your
handbag/wallet to use it?

My Oyster works when inside a small wallet.
--
Roland Perry

Inspectors have oyster card readers that can check photocard numbers
associated with the card. If you use someone else's Oyster card that
requires a photocard they will catch you and prosecute you. As for the
'beep', when you put the card on the reader it tells the driver the ticket
type used, it also sounds different if the card is not valid.

S

"Neill Wood" wrote in message
om...
A thought has occured to me while reading this thread. People get on
buses and swipe their Oyster cards without removing them from the
wallet. Is there any indictation apart from the bleep to the driver
that the card is genuine? If you were to have a fake card you can just
pass it in front of the reader and get on free. If the driver is busy
or there is a lot of noise he's got going to hear the bleep. If an
inspector gets on, do you only have to flash you card at him? Have I
uncovered a major fraud possibility here?

Neill



"SJCWHUK" wrote in message
...
I can assure you if a tube inspector stops someone who says his Oyster
card
has been stolen they will check it out. Yep it may involve some note
taking
and a phone call or two but LUL don't prosecute fare paying customers.
:-)

S

"Chris" wrote in message
...

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
.uk...
In message , at 15:30:41 on Sat,
28
Aug 2004, Paul Weaver remarked:
It's a non-issue surely, as the use of the Oyster to board the bus
will
have been logged centrally. (Or captured locally, to be logged
centrally, later).

If you have an anonymous oyster card?

They must still have some kind of serial number, how else can the OP
phone up and get it cancelled?

Or if its a season ticket?

Why are they different, surely they are logged as a much as pre-pay
(so
Ken can get his statistics on who commutes where).
--
Roland Perry


They are logged as much. You can see what busses, tubes, trains you've
been
on from those big touch screen machines no matter what type of ticket
it
is.
(You can alos request a print out from the ticket office [eg for
expense
claims] but they are often awkward)

I would like to recount the final steps in this drama.

You may remember that I cancelled the Oystercard from the website on Saturday
morning two weeks ago. When I hadn't been contacted by Thursday, I decided to
call their number to enquire.

The person on the phone looked up my number and said that, no, it hadn't been
cancelled but no, it hadn't been used since Friday. I had a little shiver of
1984-style Big Brotherism, in that someone in an office somewhere could tell
where I'd been on the Underground or on the buses...but anyway. She then
cancelled the card and I got my new one a week ago.

The moral of the story is: if you lose your Oystercard, don't cancel it on the
website--call the number (it's on the website) and report it in person. This
will guarantee that you'll get the old one cancelled and a new card soon.

Oddly enough, the people who do all the new card processing are in Ireland. No
suitable organisation could be found in London?
--
Chris Hansen | chrishansenhome at btinternet dot com
The British philosopher J. L. Austin came to Columbia and
pointed out that although two negatives make a positive,
nowhere is it the case that two positives make a negative.
"Yeah, yeah," Dr. Morgenbesser said.

Christian Hansen ty ped

Oddly enough, the people who do all the new card processing are in
Ireland. No
suitable organisation could be found in London?

I think 'outsourcing' is cheaper.. :-(

--
Helen D. Vecht:
Edgware.

Christian Hansen wrote:
The person on the phone looked up my number and said that, no, it hadn't been
cancelled but no, it hadn't been used since Friday. I had a little shiver of
1984-style Big Brotherism, in that someone in an office somewhere could tell
where I'd been on the Underground or on the buses...but anyway. She then
cancelled the card and I got my new one a week ago.

If you ever find yourself forgetful as to where you've been with your
oystercard, go to one of the touchscreen ticket machines, and you can
display recent usage history. If you use it on a bus, it will only give
the route number and time, not direction; for tube journeys, it will
give where you entered, and left the system.

Why you would need to recall your oystercard's movements when you have
it in your posession is another matter. (And I don't think anyone's used
an oystercard log as an alibi before)

--
Simon Hewison

On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 14:41:51 +0100, Simon Hewison
wrote:

Christian Hansen wrote:
The person on the phone looked up my number and said that, no, it hadn't been
cancelled but no, it hadn't been used since Friday. I had a little shiver of
1984-style Big Brotherism, in that someone in an office somewhere could tell
where I'd been on the Underground or on the buses...but anyway. She then
cancelled the card and I got my new one a week ago.

If you ever find yourself forgetful as to where you've been with your
oystercard, go to one of the touchscreen ticket machines, and you can
display recent usage history. If you use it on a bus, it will only give
the route number and time, not direction; for tube journeys, it will
give where you entered, and left the system.

Why you would need to recall your oystercard's movements when you have
it in your posession is another matter. (And I don't think anyone's used
an oystercard log as an alibi before)

Well, if the record is held on my card, and I'm just reading it, I'm not
concerned as much. If the record is held by Big Brother, and I'm just reading
what he wants to show me, I'm a bit more worried.

I believe that the record is on the card itself. How long is the material
retained on the Oyster "database", then?
--
Chris Hansen | chrishansenhome at btinternet dot com