Chinese police target online train ticket scalping

Chinese railway police have set up task forces targeting train ticket scalping online ahead of the upcoming Spring Festival travel rush, said the Ministry of Public Security on Friday.

These temporary units monitor ticket sales on the national train ticket booking website, identify irregular transactions and feed the clues to railway police's field teams, according to a ministry statement.

The ministry pledged a complete crackdown on online scalping and tight monitoring on busy lines, the statement said.

It also published details of an online scalping case in Xiamen City of southeast China's Fujian Province.

A women surnamed Liao was caught on Wednesday buying 81 train tickets in one go at a ticket booth in Xiamen. She confessed to having used fake ID numbers to book a total of 186 tickets online and then sell them at inflated prices since October.

According to the statement, the ministry has sent nine teams to help local police fight online scalping.

The Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, will fall on Jan. 31. It is the most important Chinese holiday for family reunions, making it a hectic time for the country's public transportation system.

According to the China Railway Corporation, about 257.8 million Chinese are expected to travel by rail during this 40-day season, 7.9 percent more than last year.

Many passengers have been complaining about difficulties booking tickets at 12306.cn, the official website of the China Railway Corporation, with many attributing the problem to scalpers who use "ticket snatching" plugins that can automatically acquire a large number of tickets on the website.