Beware
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Masters! Know how things are happening around you; beware of these scams and frauds. You should know the current technological Ticket Refund fraud uncovered in Bihar and Reservation System in Delhi.
According to an article on The Times of India (April 24th, 2010), a rare type of cyber-crime has been uncovered in Bihar, in which trains were shown as temporarily cancelled to make the system refund money to the concerned travel agencies while the tickets still remained valid.
The article goes something like this...
PATNA: Samastipur division of East Central Railway (ECR) has unearthed a rare kind of cyber crime which cost the railways several crores by way of fake cancellation of trains and refund of money against reserved tickets. Five railway employees involved in the racket have been suspended so far under Samastipur division. The matter has been handed over to vigilance team of the ECR for thorough probe.
According to the modus operandi, the franchisee or the agency dealing with e-ticketing, in connivance with railway employees, would get a train cancelled for a short duration on the Passenger Reservation System (PRS) and get the money refunded to their account, even though the train was very much into the operation. Once the money was credited back to their account, the system was restored. The e-ticket scam would have remained undetected had it not been a bad luck for one of the railway employees Brajesh Kumar, who could not restore the system 20 days ago which led to the detection of this clandestine trade of laundering of railway money. “On April 2, the Lichavi Express departed from Sitamarhi to Delhi. The control room at Samastipur was informed that the PRS at Sugauli was showing the train as cancelled, where as the train had actually started its journey,” said a top ECR Official who is investigating the matter.
“The IRCTC agents or franchisee issuing e-tickets, in connivance with railway staff, would get the train cancelled on PRS for 15 to 30 minutes and get the automatic refund of money, without affecting passengers’ travel plan,” said the Official. “After this racket was unearthed and probe initiated, six railway employees of the ECR – Pankaj Chowdhary (Enquiry-Cum-Reservation Clerk), Jamal Akhtar (Commercial Supervisor), Ramesh Jha (Booking Clerk), Arvind Mishra (Reservation Supervisor), Brajesh Kumar and Binod Kumar Das (Booking Clerks) have been placed under suspension for tampering with the PRS without prior permission and showing the trains as cancelled,” said Chief Public Relation Officer (CPRO) of ECR Mr. Dilip Kumar. According to an ECR Official, the Saptakranti Express was shown cancelled on more than 70 times by the cyber crime experts. The 2309 Rajdhani Express was also shown cancelled on four occasions in March. “So far we have come across 310 trains which were cancelled for various durations on different days,” the source said.
Under the IRCTC system, cancellation of trains automatically leads to refund of money into the account of the agency through which e-tickets are booked.
As soon as money was credited into the agency’s account, the vested interests would immediately restore trains on the railway system, ECR CPRO Dilip Kumar said, adding a high-level probe set up by the ECR would now unravel the racket going on clandestinely in connivance with a few railway employees of the division.
According to sources, the railways has detected 310 fake cancellation of passengers trains during the 2009-2010 fiscal under Samastipur division alone. These irregularities were committed mostly at Sugauli, Bettiah, Janakpur Road, Simri Bakhtiarpur and other small stations for fake refund of railway reserved tickets. While the premier Saptkranti Express was shown cancelled for about 70 times, Vaishali Express and other long-distance trains too were targeted for the purpose by the vested interests frequently during the past one year to get huge refunds against the tickets, sources said.
ECR acting GM Mr. A.P.Mishra, who will be arriving in Patna on Saturday, would hold a high-level discussion with Senior Officials of ECR in this connection. According to sources, the railways is likely to hand over the case to the CBI since involvement of non-railway employees in this crime is not ruled out. An IRCTC Official in New Delhi said that the IRCTC would have to make the entire system foolproof.
According to Samastipur DRM Mr. Kundan Choudhary, the organized racket was being tracked by a team of Commercial Officials. The matter came to light when Brajesh Kumar, a booking clerk of Janakpur Road under Samastipur division, showed fake cancellation of the Lichhvi Express (4005) on the railway system for about half an hour on April 9 to get refunds of e-tickets. The matter came to light when a novice railway employee failed to restore running of the train on the system, he said, adding that five railway employees of different stations were suspended on Thursday in this connection.
Divisional Commercial Manager of Samastipur division Mr. K.K. Sharma said the suspended employees are Jamal Akhthar (commercial clerk), Sugauli, Pankaj Choudhary (enquiry-cum-reservation clerk), Sugauli, R K Jha (enquiry-cum-reservation clerk), Bettiah, A N Mishra (reservation supervisor), Bettiah and Brajesh Kumar (booking clerks), Janakpur Road. The railways has been carrying out search operation at other reservation terminals under the division to check this rare cyber crime, he said.
R'ly ticket fraud exposed in Delhi
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