(The Boston Globe posted the following article on its website on June 29.)
BOSTON –MBTA riders have submitted thousands of dollars worth of fraudulent refund claims by using the names of friends, deceased relatives and even the family dog, according to transit police.
Customers are allowed to ask for a refund of their fare under the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s customer Bill of Rights when bus, subway or train service is 30 minutes late.
But after handing out more than $1.3 million in unquestioned refunds last year, the agency started looking deeper, and a preliminary review found that the on-time guarantee was being targeted by con artists.
“We were finding rampant abuse of the system,” MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabauskas told the Boston Herald.
The MBTA is now aggressively cracking down on fraud, said Grabausakas, who took over the agency in May 2005. So far this year, the authority has handed out $140,000 in refunds in the first four months of this year, compared to $549,000 during the same period in 2005.
The MBTA has denied nearly 4,500 refund claims this year, compared to none from January to April last year.
The MBTA is facing a $70 million budget shortfall and is considering raising fares.
Among the abuse uncovered by transit police was the case of a Rhode Island man, who submitted 521 fraudulent refund requests totaling more than $6,000. Some of the refund requests were made in the name of the man’s deceased father, investigators said.
A Whitman family submitted more than $2,000 on phony refund requests over several years, including some in the name of the family dog, authorities said.
Both the Rhode Island man and the Whitman family agreed to pay full restitution in order to avoid criminal charges.
Transit police on Wednesday filed their first criminal charges against a rider who refused to pay restitution after being confronted with fraud allegations. The 34-year-old Plymouth woman faces larceny by scheme charges for more than $1,100 in allegedly phony refund requests. Authorities said she submitted refund requests in the names of family and friends.