Koblenzer Verkehrsbetriebe: preventing payment fraud with the Deutschland-Ticket

The challenge: new technologies, new fraud types

Koblenzer Verkehrsbetriebe, or koveb in short, the public transport operator for the German city of Koblenz, faced a growing fraud problem with the popular Deutschland-Ticket, which allows passengers unlimited bus and regional train travel for a flat fee each month.

As cashless payments have become the default, fraudsters have increasingly been trying to exploit online sign-ups and recurring SEPA Direct Debit payments. This posed a daily operational risk that could quickly translate into substantial revenue loss. At the same time, koveb needed to keep the customer experience smooth and avoid overloading its team with manual checks and follow-up.

The solution: fraud prevention + automation

Together with Ximedes, the supplier of their ticketing system and D-Ticket App, koveb went looking for a payment partner that could combine strong fraud prevention with fully automated recurring collections. Ximedes selected Twikey as its payment orchestration partner. The goal: to embed account validation, fraud checks and automated collections directly into the ticketing flow.

Twikey’s platform was integrated into the Ximedes system so that every new subscription and payment request passes through a control process before collection via SEPA Direct Debit (with support for other methods such as credit cards and PayPal where needed). Key elements of the setup include:

• IBAN name verification during e-mandate sign-up, checking whether the account holder matches the contract holder.
• Additional fraud checks on the account to assess the risk of non-payment.
• Systematic validation of SEPA Direct Debit mandates for account existence, activity status and available funds.
• Blacklist management to stop known or suspected fraud attempts.
• Automated handling of failed payments with smart retries, reminders and, where necessary, cancellations.
• Fallback options such as secure pay pages and QR codes, allowing genuine customers to complete payment through alternative methods.

All of this runs in the background, so koveb’s team doesn’t need to manually intervene for each suspicious or failed transaction. The same integration architecture is now being rolled out to other regions in Germany, giving them access to the same payment and fraud-prevention capabilities.

Results: less fraud, higher collection reliability

The impact at koveb was visible within days of go-live. Dozens of fraudulent transactions linked to the Deutschland-Ticket were automatically blocked, including attempts to purchase a very large number of tickets that would have resulted in a significant financial loss.

“Suspicious mandates and payment attempts are intercepted early, before they can turn into unpaid subscriptions or chargebacks. Using Twikey as the key prevention measure for this issue was a game-changer for us.”

• Christian Mund, Head of Finance, IT and HR at koveb.

At the same time, legitimate customers experience a largely frictionless onboarding, even when something goes wrong: the system responds automatically with the appropriate next step.

As a result, koveb, Ximedes and Twikey jointly achieved:

• A sharp reduction in successful fraud attempts on the Deutschland-Ticket.
• Higher collection reliability for recurring payments.
• Less manual work for finance and customer service teams.
• A smoother, more consistent experience for passengers.

“In the past, fraud with subscription tickets felt like a constant game of catch-up. With the Ximedes–Twikey setup, suspicious transactions are stopped before they hit our books, while genuine customers can buy and renew their tickets without extra hassle. It’s a rare case where security has actually improved our customer experience.”

• Christian Mund, Head of Finance, IT and HR at koveb.

What's next?

The joint solution developed for koveb is now being extended to other public transport operators using Ximedes’ ticketing systems. As Europe’s payment landscape evolves – with new schemes such as Wero and increased use of PSD2-compliant payment initiation alongside secure SEPA Direct Debits – flexibility and low-risk payment options will only grow in importance.

Ximedes and Twikey are continuing to refine their joint offering with additional fraud signals, broader support for regional payment methods and deeper automation of exception handling. For koveb and other PTOs, this means a future-ready payment setup that keeps fraud under control, stabilizes recurring revenues and supports the ongoing shift toward fully digital, cashless ticketing.

Would you, too, like to know how we can help you prevent fraud in online payments? Let’s talk.