OM demands community service and 33,000 euros from IT professionals who cracked the public transport chip card

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The Public Prosecution Service demands 120 hours of community service and the repayment of more than 33,000 euros against two 33-year-old IT people from Utrecht who committed fraud by cracking public transport chip cards. Between 2015 and 2017 they traveled for free with hacked chip cards.

The two IT staff are suspected of committing fraud with public transport chip cards by cracking them and increasing the balance on them. According to the public prosecutor, they did that from the end of 2015 to the end of 2017, RTV Utrecht writes.

According to the regional broadcaster, the two told the court that they started cracking public transport chip cards out of professional interest. News reports about a security breach made them wonder what privacy-sensitive data is on the cards and how difficult it would be to crack them. The men said they were surprised at how simple it was.

The two had to regularly crack new public transport chip cards, because Translink blocks cards when there is a suspicion of fraud. In 2017, the manager of the public transport chip card filed a report with the police after discovering systematic fraud. After an investigation, the suspects came into the picture by looking at surveillance cameras at stations.

The AD also writes about the two it’ers. The two are friends and colleagues, they work in Alkmaar and travel by train from Utrecht to work. In their own words, they used the cracked public transport chip cards out of convenience and because of the kick, not for financial gain.

The IT professionals have confessed, but the financial side of the matter is under discussion. The Public Prosecution Service assumes that the suspects used the cracked cards for a full working week for two years. The men did not work full-time, sometimes driving to work and sometimes working from home. According to the suspects, Translink has not properly substantiated the damage suffered and fraud committed by others may be attributed to them.

With their lawyer, the suspects have tried to reach a settlement with Translink to compensate for the damage. Translink would have resisted that, because the company ‘does not want to sit around the table with criminals’. The court will rule on June 17.

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