After a series of raids, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) sleuths from the South Western Railway (SWR) zone have found a complex web of illegal operators and hackers who booked Tatkal tickets using illegal Pakistani software, bypassing the Indian Railways as well as the banks OTP safeguards as well as charging customers five times the normal price.
“In September last year, intelligence agencies alerted on the use of illegal software for bypassing the IRCTC and bank security systems deployed in booking Tatkal tickets throughout India,” said a railway zone official.
A person arrested in this matter has revealed leads about the people behind the activity.
He was found to be using 3,000 bank accounts, Bitcoin and cryptocurrency links and a black market of 25,000 hackers and touts with a high command in India and abroad were detected in his interrogation. The money generated is suspected to be used for several anti-national and criminal activities all over India and overseas.
Top-level intervention at the level of RPF director-general, who personally coordinated through the DIG Railway Board was required for exposing this racket and over 100-panel developers and software sellers were arrested across the country. The officials have also destroyed the seized software codes.
