Date:26/04/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/04/26/stories/2005042616510400.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Youths play e-card to dupe SCR, arrested

Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD: In a re-run of the Internet-based railway ticket scam busted a year ago by the Jubilee Hills police, three youngsters duped the South Central Railway (SCR) of Rs. 3.5 lakhs by reserving tickets online under fake names and paying through credit cards of others.

Police arrested Y. Vengala Reddy, a car driver and V. Anil Kumar, a student, while the alleged kingpin behind the fraud, T. Suresh, is absconding.

Modus operandi

The trio registered 60 fake user names and 83 email addresses on the website of Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). They would reserve tickets for long distance trains using numbers of different credit cards and give addresses of their friends for delivery of tickets.

Suresh used to collect details of credit cards used by customers at a petrol bunk in Jubilee Hills. He used to pose as an agent of ICICI bank.

Sale at railway station

Later, they would ring up the courier agency to find when the tickets would be delivered and collect the same by waiting at the given location. They made money by selling the tickets to needy passengers at the railway station. Police began investigations after the SCR approached them. The first lead came when the addressees to which tickets were delivered turned out to be friends of the arrested persons, DCP Amit Garg explained.

Based on their confession, Reddy and Kumar were picked up. Earlier, Suresh was arrested by the Delhi police and Reddy by Jubilee Hills on similar charges. Mr. Garg appealed to people not to reveal their credit cards details to anyone. The IRCTC manager, Laxminarayana, said measures were taken up to make the website was not misused in the future.