CHENNAI: The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has busted a ticket booking racket and seized e-tickets worth Rs 7,034 and expired tickets worth Rs 1.68lakh from a travel agency in Vellore following a raid on Tuesday.
An agent was arrested while a hunt is on for his accomplice who is suspected to be in Kolkata.
RPF Chennai senior divisional security commissioner Senthil Kumaresan said the scamsters adopted a new modus operandi and used a software to bypass captcha and the need for an OTP on IRCTC website and were booking tickets at a premium for customers.
“The agency had a licence to book railway tickets and were running a proper firm for issuing tickets and other services. But they created fake IDs on IRCTC and were using an illegal software called ‘Real Mango’ to quickly fill all the columns and book tickets. This way, they were able to book thousands of tickets in no time. By the time people logged in and filled up the personal details, the tickets would have got booked.,” he added.
He also said that such touts put genuine passengers at a disadvantage because they are not able to get confirmed tickets on trains and are forced to fall back on such agents who book tickets for a hefty commission.
During inquiry, it was found that the accused were operating as sub-agents on behalf of the owner of the travel agency from West Bengal and booked e-tickets using multiple user IDs violating IRCTC rules.
The cell phone of the accused was also loaded with apps for booking tickets.
Recently, a gang of touts using illegal software ‘Real Mango’ was busted by RPF in Kolkata. “An all India drive was being done to check if touts were using such software or apps to block large number of tickets during festival time. More checks will be done during Puja and Diwali season,” he added.
An agent was arrested while a hunt is on for his accomplice who is suspected to be in Kolkata.
RPF Chennai senior divisional security commissioner Senthil Kumaresan said the scamsters adopted a new modus operandi and used a software to bypass captcha and the need for an OTP on IRCTC website and were booking tickets at a premium for customers.
“The agency had a licence to book railway tickets and were running a proper firm for issuing tickets and other services. But they created fake IDs on IRCTC and were using an illegal software called ‘Real Mango’ to quickly fill all the columns and book tickets. This way, they were able to book thousands of tickets in no time. By the time people logged in and filled up the personal details, the tickets would have got booked.,” he added.
He also said that such touts put genuine passengers at a disadvantage because they are not able to get confirmed tickets on trains and are forced to fall back on such agents who book tickets for a hefty commission.
During inquiry, it was found that the accused were operating as sub-agents on behalf of the owner of the travel agency from West Bengal and booked e-tickets using multiple user IDs violating IRCTC rules.
The cell phone of the accused was also loaded with apps for booking tickets.
Recently, a gang of touts using illegal software ‘Real Mango’ was busted by RPF in Kolkata. “An all India drive was being done to check if touts were using such software or apps to block large number of tickets during festival time. More checks will be done during Puja and Diwali season,” he added.
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