NETHERLANDS Railways (NS), Arriva Netherlands and other public transport operators have refused to accept payment for travel by virtual payment cards loaded on smartphones. Last month NS blocked the use of all cards issued by online bank Revolut and payment services Paysafe and Vivid.
The use of virtual payment cards enables passengers to check in at the start of their journey and check out at their destination as they would using a physical payment card, giving them the appearance of holding a valid ticket. However, those wishing to evade payment could cancel the virtual payment card later the same day, exploiting a loophole in the national OVPay payment system, which registers payments overnight, missing payments made on a cancelled virtual payment card. Travellers who had avoided payment were able to create a new virtual card the following day.
Translink, which processes payments on behalf of operators, has not revealed the extent of the fraud. However, it says that it informed card issuers in advance of which payment cards would no longer be accepted.
The OVPay loophole was identified as long ago as 2023, but operators say payments are processed overnight to avoid delays at ticket gates, where real-time processing could take up to 15 seconds per payment.
German card provider Vivid is reported to have developed a solution to prevent its cards being used fraudulently and expects to implement this by the end of September. It remains to be seen whether Translink will then agree to process payments from card providers that have been blocked.
