"Fraud doubles with $10M parking upgrade"
A $10 million upgrade of credit card readers in the Toronto Parking Authority's pay-and-display parking meters that was supposed to make them fraud resistant has actually resulted in a doubling of fraudulent use, a city audit has found.
Auditor-general Jeff Griffiths' report amounts to a scathing indictment of the card reader purchase, first revealed last year in Fixer articles that questioned why the TPA paid about $3,840 per reader for its 2,600 street meters. A search of the Internet found similar technology selling for less than half the price.
The new card readers do not connect in real time to the card issuers, to confirm the validity of the card. The "batch technology" used uploads accumulated charges only once a day, and dispenses a parking slip on faith that the card is good.
Anyone with a cancelled credit card with a valid date can use it to obtain free parking.
excellent job thestar.com reporter jake lakey... you've likely just re-doubled the parking fraud committed. applause.
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