SINGAPORE - Payment service provider Nets has been warned by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) following investigations of an incident where a man was seen tapping in and out of several gantries at an MRT station.
A video of the incident, which reportedly took place at the Outram Park station on May 17, was uploaded on Facebook on May 18.
In a statement on Friday (May 24), LTA said that it has investigated the incident and confirmed that the incident arose from testing conducted by Nets as part of its SimplyGo trial.
The SimplyGo system links a user's credit or debit card to the transport providers, which eliminates the need for top-ups.
"We have since warned Nets that their testing activities should not cause any disruption to transport operations," LTA said.
When contacted, a spokesman for Nets said: "We will work closely with the LTA on the subsequent tests for our contactless cards on the public transport system."
After the video of the incident went viral, netizens had speculated that the man was abusing LTA's Travel Smart Rewards initiative.
The initiative allows commuters to earn points during their commute on the MRT and LRT on weekdays, and the points can be used to win cash rewards.
In its statement, LTA confirmed that the incident in the video was not related to the Travel Smart Rewards initiative, which will conclude by end-June.
LTA expanded its SimplyGo trial to Nets last December.
The system, which was rolled out to Mastercard users on April 4, will be extended to Visa users from June 6.
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.
