Slamet Susanto, Yogyakarta – Scalpers are a common and exasperating sight at train stations here. You attempt to buy a ticket from the booth, slump in dejection as you are told the train is booked out, accept that you're just not going anywhere this weekend – and then, lo and behold, here's a nice gentleman who does have tickets for the train – at a significantly higher price than normal.

The mass exodus that occurs with the Idul Fitri holidays is peak business season for scalpers. There are usually more passengers than there are seats in the first place and scalpers use this to their advantage. But Yogyakarta train station decided that this year, enough was enough. Every person who purchases four tickets receives a stamp on the hand to prevent them from buying any more.

Unfortunately it has failed to have much of an impact. It turns out that the scalpers at Tugu train station in Yogyakarta are more creative than the managers. "After lining up for the ticket, we simply clean off the stamps and line up again," said Ambon, who has been a scalper at the station for 10 years.

He said it the stamp policy would not affect the scalpers since the train station's security officers knew the scalpers already and remembered their faces. Ambon said the move was also a "bluff" as many people, including employees of train company PT Kereta Api Indonesia, were involved in scalping.

For example, he said, each train staffer gets free tickets, which are then sold to scalpers. Prices for business class are raised by Rp 40,000, while an executive class ticket can set you back between Rp 50,000 and Rp 70,000 more than usual.

"We bought the tickets at high prices so we sell them at high prices too, since we have to make a profit," said another scalper, Ranto, while showing a ticket for the Taksaka executive train on Oct. 28. He was offering it at Rp 450,000, quite a mark-up on the official price of Rp 300,000 and said that he had bought the ticket from a train company employee for Rp 360,000.

Another scalper, Ranto, said that aside from buying tickets from train station employees or posing as passengers, they also asked other people to buy tickets for them.

"Every time we pay someone to line up for two tickets, we pay him Rp 80,000 and include a meal. Whether he gets the tickets or not, we still have to pay. But I was tricked recently – I paid someone to buy a ticket for an Oct. 29 trip, but there was no result," he said.

Ticket prices, he said, varied depending on the day of departure. A ticket for an executive class train leaving on Oct. 26 could be sold for Rp 400,000, but ticket prices for trips on Oct. 27 and 28 could reach Rp 450,000, while on Oct. 29 a ticket would cost Rp 500,000. The average official ticket price is Rp 300,000.

Ranto and Ambon both said they needed more than Rp 10 million behind them to stay in business, using the money to buy tickets for busy days such as Oct. 27 to Oct. 30. "The profits can be used to celebrate Idul Fitri," Ranto said.

Train company spokesman Mochtadi said he office had deployed plain clothes officers to monitor scalping activity at the station.