Ukrzaliznytsia Responded to Bihus.Info Investigation on Ticket Scalpers

In Ukrzaliznytsia they explained that the account of the ticket scalper, which sold journalists from Bihus.Info a valid ticket bypassing verification through Diia, is blocked. It belonged to a third party who provided access for a separate fee.

According to Ukrzaliznytsia, the person who gave access to their Diia will never be able to buy tickets through the Ukrzaliznytsia app again:

“First of all — the account of this user — the ticket scalper, indeed, was verified through Diia. It is currently blocked by the anti-fraud system — the user cannot authorize again, even if they try from another device or after reinstalling the app. The person who gave (probably for money) their Diia to the scalpers — will not be able to buy tickets themselves!” the statement says.

Recall how journalists from Bihus.Info explained in their investigation that the ticket scalper only needs to find another owner of a verified Diia account — and the scheme of reselling tickets will continue to operate.

In the Telegram group mentioned in the video, scalpers showed hundreds of seats already purchased. This indicates that there may be many accounts for such schemes among the scalpers. Thus, verification through Diia by itself is not a panacea against ticket scalping. This contradicts Ukrzaliznytsia’s own position, which introduced Diia authentication for purchasing tickets on several routes precisely to fight scalping.

Bihus.Info handed Ukrzaliznytsia a list of identified ticket scalpers.