Thanks for the antipodean information...
I've never been to Australia, or seen an Opal card. Thanks for the description.
You, on the other hand, have never worked on or been close to someone who works on a transport system, or else you would know that the look and feel of an official card is part and parcel of spotting forgeries. Typefaces, shades of colouration, position of the logo relative to the edge of the card, areas of raised inking, peeling surfaces etc etc all can clue someone in to a potential forgery. I've seen National Rail tickets that have been confiscated as forgeries and some are very good, identical to genuine barring a spelling error on one part (that took me about 30 minutes to spot whereas for my friend who does this day in day out, it popped out like a red spot in a green field), others that are utterly laughable and would barely pass for real if flashed to a myopic, cataract ridden, disinterested member of staff in a thick fog at night.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
