IRCTC blacklists 4.6 lakh user IDs to restrict e-ticket booking fraud

By Subhas Marne
Bellevision Media Network

Wednesday, 29 June 2011: The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), which looks after online railway ticket booking service IRCTC.co.in, has blocked over 4.6 lakh user IDs and 71,484 email IDs since March 2011 to curb malpractices in train reservations. IRCTC has enhanced its cyber surveillance and has been disabling IDs, which are found to be violating laws. "Users of these IDs will no longer be able to book tickets through our website," P C Bihari, public relations officer, IRCTC has said.

 

IRCTC has also restricted the number of bookings in a day through a single user ID to two. Also, individual users cannot book more than 10 tickets in a month. In March, the IRCTC barred its authorized agents from booking tatkal tickets online between 8 am and 9 am after many citizens complained that they were finding it difficult to book tickets on the railway website. The agents, however, found their way around the system by creating multiple user IDs so that they could book tickets during the restricted slot.

 

Recently, the cyber-crime arm of Mumbai Police had arrested Suraj Yadav, 35, a marketing professional who operated a travel agency in Mulund for allegedly booking online tickets from the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) website using fraudulent means.

- From sources