Amid yawning budget deficits and chronic equipment failures, the MTA's brightest development as of late may be its contactless fare payment system. The new tech, known as OMNY, celebrated its 5 millionth tap this week—a milestone that far outpaced the agency's "most ambitious internal estimates," per an exultant press release.

The only problem? At least some of those fares seem to have been billed to riders without their knowledge.

Multiple people tell Gothamist that they'd recently swiped through the system with an old-fashioned MetroCard, only to later realize that they were charged by OMNY on top of their standard fare. The double-billing appears to be the result of the system's overly-sensitive scanner, which is scooping up fares from OMNY-enabled smartphones and credit cards even as straphangers use other means of payment.

@NYCTSubway - my ApplePay has now been charged SEVERAL TIMES accidentally by your OMNY machines even though I use an unlimited Metrocard every time I ride subway. My bank said many customers had been calling to dispute these charges. When will you fix it???@NYCMayor #mtastealing — Libby S. (@Libbeck) December 27, 2019

#OMNY managed to scan my credit card through my purse while I swiped my #MetroCard at UES 86th Street. Appreciate the enthusiasm, but no. @2AvSagas — Marie Dugo (@MarieDugo) January 3, 2020

Whoaaaa just got charged $2.75 by @MTA OMNY even though I swiped my monthly metro card and my phone was in my pocket. This is kinda crazy, @NYCTSubway? pic.twitter.com/Xnb4MBCbXa — macartney (@macartney) January 7, 2020

Macartney Morris, an Astoria resident, said he encountered the glitch while using his monthly MetroCard to access the 7 train at Grand Central on Tuesday. "When I got to Queens I saw I had an Apple Pay notification that I was charged $2.75," he said. "My phone was in my jacket pocket, where I always keep it. I was really taken aback."

When Morris contacted the MTA about the incident, he said he was directed to file a complaint on OMNY's website, and eventually reimbursed. No one from the transit agency was able to explain the cause of the problem.

"I understand there are growing pains, but it's a little worrisome that the MTA just doesn't know what it's doing," Morris added. "They're going crazy on fare evasion, but here they are grabbing people's fares willy nilly."

Jaqi Cohen of the Straphanger's Campaign said the advocacy organization had heard "quite a few" complaints about the issue, particularly in the last few weeks. It's not clear whether the MTA may have recently adjusted the scanner's range, or if the bug is becoming more prevalent as the system expands. The problem appears largely confined to Apple Pay users.

The contactless fare payment system is currently available at nearly 90 stations, and will be installed at an additional 60 by the end of the month. It's scheduled to go live at Rockefeller Center, Bryant Park and Herald Square next week.

The MTA says that OMNY is on pace to launch systemwide by the end of 2020, and will replace the MetroCard completely by 2023. The project is being overseen by the San Diego-based tech company Cubic at a cost of roughly $644 million.

"Obviously the MTA has plans to really significantly roll out this technology throughout the system in next few years, so we want to make sure that this isn't happening or becoming a more frequent issue," Cohen said. "And I really want to know how the MTA plans to reimburse these riders."

A spokesperson for the MTA said they were looking into the complaints, but did not have further information by press time. Cubic did not respond to Gothamist's inquiries.

In the meantime, here's one solution—for iPhone users, at least—to ensure the MTA isn't double-dipping on your fare payments.

Warning to #ApplePay users in #NYC: If you swipe a MetroCard to ride the @MTA subway, turn off the “Express Transit Card” option so your card isn’t charged accidentally when you pass through OMNY-enabled turnstiles like mine was...



cc: @Gothamist @Straphangers @davidphelan2009 pic.twitter.com/IGvS5s5iiu — Chaim Haas (@chaimhaas) December 24, 2019

UPDATE: Al Putre, the MTA program executive in charge of OMNY, provided Gothamist with the following statement: “We’ve been notified by about 30 customers, out of more than 5,000,000 taps so far, about unintended charges when the Express Transit feature of their iPhones is activated. The system is a popular success that’s working well for the vast majority of people and we’re in touch with Apple about addressing the issue of unintended taps.”