Deutsche Bahn: Fraud cases through bank account confirmation decreased
DB ticket subscription requires account verification. Despite criticism, DB sees the move as a success.
Whether the fan audience will sit quietly in 1st class during the upcoming European Football Championship will become clear from June 14.
(Image: Deutsche Bahn)
Since the end of last year, Deutsche Bahn has required its customers to confirm their bank account when purchasing a ticket subscription online. The number of fraud attempts has fallen since then, said a Deutsche Bahn spokeswoman in a press conference on Tuesday. That was the aim of the verification. She did not give exact figures.
DB works together with the financial service providers Tink and Verimi for this confirmation process. Customers log in to their bank's online banking system. "Only the successful login and the name of the person managing the account are requested in the online banking system. DB only receives the information about the successful login," a DB spokesperson explained to heise online in December 2023.
This procedure puts off some potential customers. The hacker and widely read blogger Felix von Leitner wrote in April, for example, that he would boycott it and not give his account login details to anyone.When asked about such protests regarding data protection and security aspects, which were reflected in social networks or in emails to heise online, the DB spokeswoman said that there had been no conspicuous cancellations of bookings recently. She added that this would indicate that there were no problems.
Less plastic
Regarding Deutsche Bahn's digitalization strategy, which also includes such payment methods, it was stated in the press conference that 90 percent of long-distance customers now book their journeys via the DB Navigator or the website. In local transport, where spontaneous purchases at ticket machines tend to play a role, the number of digital purchases has risen to 78 percent since the introduction of the Deutschlandticket.
Deutsche Bahn also took this opportunity to defend its plan to no longer offer Bahncard 50 and Bahncard 25 physically in the future. This would save 30,000 tons of plastic. The Bahncard 100 will possibly follow, but as a complete ticket, it still has a different status than the discount cards. However, there are many requests from customers for a purely digital Bahncard 100, said a DB spokeswoman. Those who wish to can still print out their Bahncard 50 or 25 on paper.
More flexibility
Digitalization, which is also reflected in the latest version of the DB Navigator rail app, allows the company to design its offers more flexibly. The app has now been downloaded 70 million times and around 96.5 million bookings were made with it in 2023. Customers with a ticket without a train connection could also define their journeys in Navigator. This is also important in light of the upcoming general refurbishment of the rail network, to address customers directly if the operating schedule changes due to construction work.
The flexible offers made possible by digitalization include, for example, a special and purely digital Probebahncard 25 for the upcoming European Men's Football Championship. It will be available from May 15 to June 16, 2024, and will cost EUR 19.90 for 2nd class and EUR 39.90 for 1st class. If the German footballers win the European Championship title in the summer, the trial card will be converted into a season ticket 25 free of charge for one year. But watch out: If you do not cancel your Bahncard 25 in good time, it will be automatically extended.
(anw)
