"We are greatly concerned that people are going to these lengths to fare-evade." He said drivers reported it was mostly students using the tactic. The Public Transport Users Association president Tony Morton said he had not heard of this particular scam but the myki system was being exploited because it could be. "Some people will find ways to work around a system that has holes in [it], which clearly myki does," Mr Morton said. He said there were high rates of fare evasion because of the low likelihood of being caught.

"Some people will dream up these schemes when you (the state government) do not have proper enforcement of fare compliance because you cannot be bothered staffing the system with people whose job it is to check tickets," Mr Morton said. He said before myki and its predecessor Metcard, some passengers found ways to get free fares from the "scratchie" travel card. Back then, some passengers re-applied the silver paint that was scratched away to mark the day and time it was used, allowing passengers to fraudulently re-use the ticket, Mr Morton said. Mr Lowe said Public Transport Victoria funded the Bus Association to employ just 12 authorised officers over the entire state bus system, yet tram and train services had hundreds of officers. He said the dozen officers concentrated on the metropolitan system but made regular trips to major regional centres. He said their role was to educate passengers, provide customer service, and enforce the law. In a statement, a Public Transport Victoria spokesman said it was aware of social media chatter about this particular scam. He said the PTV was working closely with operators to tackle fare evasion and target known hot spots, including bus interchanges.