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Berlin sucks. A bit confusing and then they pay guys to walk around and check for tickets.

If you know what to look for you can always spot the controllers, so they are easy to avoid. not easy for foereigners of course, but honestly as tourist most public transport anywhere is confusing if you're not used to it.

I found the controllers easy to spot as a foreigner; they look like hardened police officers who will not take your shit if you don't have a ticket.

That's my experience, at least.

When I was young and poor I "saved money" by buying the ticket in the morning, and only stamping it on the way back in the evening. I gambled successfully that if you get caught in the morning then you are the foreigner who does have a ticket (time of purchase is on the ticket) but "was not aware" that you had to stamp it.

Yea that is mostly right IMO. Sometimes (rarely) they will be "undercover" and wear plainclothes - you can usually spot them on the oversized handbags they carry where they store their scanning devices. Some are really good, very hard to spot them. But they always come in groups of 2+ and will enter at different doors and make eye contact with each other before they start controlling.

And yea the "clueless tourist" approach works almost always.

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