City officials are warning bus riders to buy monthly TheBus passes from authorized retailers after the recent discovery of counterfeit cards.
Last month an alert bus driver spotted a fake June pass being flashed by a passenger when a portion of the card showed it was actually for the month of April, Mayor Kirk Caldwell said. The passenger was not detained, but the pass was seized. TheBus officials didn’t notify the city until last week.
The city has also received a report of an individual trying to sell multiple counterfeit cards near Aala Park.
"People are taking bus passes that cost $60 a month for an individual, and they’re counterfeiting (them) and selling (the passes) for a lot less," the mayor said. The crime is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a maximum fine of $2,000.
City Transportation Services Director Michael Formby said legitimate bus passes have built-in anti-counterfeiting measures that make it difficult to copy precisely, including anti-fraud holographic backgrounds that cannot be photographed.
Right now it is up to bus drivers to detect whether a pass is authentic.
Instead of copying, the counterfeiters developed a decal that is placed over the front of a previous month’s card, Formby said. The skillful and sophisticated design of the counterfeit passes led transportation officials to worry that people are creating them to sell in great numbers, he said.
"This is probably an operation that’s done in many, many multiples intended to be sold and distributed illegally," Formby said. "Somebody had to go through a lot of time and effort to come up with this."
TheBus carries about 221,000 riders a day. Monthly passes are TheBus’ main source of income with 34,000 to 35,000 adult and 8,000 to 10,000 youth passes sold each month, Formby said.
"If this (scheme) was to take off, it could be a significant cut in revenue," he said.
Corporation Counsel Donna Leong said her agency is working with TheBus, transit officials and Honolulu police to develop "possible enforcement actions" that minimize disruption to bus workers and passengers.
In 2010 about 200 counterfeit passes were seized in about a week, Leong said.
For a list of valid bus pass retailers, see bit.ly/11kHsvT.
