Highlights
- The Ministry of Information and Technology has warned the public about a traffic e-challan scam.
- Hackers, pretending to be Traffic Police, are sending fake e-challan text messages to people to steal money and hack phones.
- The government has highlighted one key difference between the fake challans and the real ones, which can save you.
The Ministry of Information and Technology’s public security arm has issued a warning on a fake traffic challan scam that has been brought to light via an incident in Faridabad, Haryana. In this latest ploy, fraudsters are sending unsuspecting people e-challans via texts, akin to the ones sent by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways with a malicious link to steal your money and data.
While both the fake and real e-challans look very similar if not observed carefully, there are a few ways to distinguish between two, and the government has highlighted one key difference which you must know.
Fake traffic challan scam: how to save yourself
- A fake e-challan text message will look like the one in the image above. As you can notice, the link on which the challan is supposed to be paid ends with “.in”. Any real e-challan will actually end with the “gov.in” domain name and not just “.in”.
- Another key way of identifying a fake e-challan versus a real one is the presence of personal details. A real e-challan always contains your vehicle’s registration number. A scam e-challan text will only ask you to click on a link for details. Do not do that. Here’s the legit way of paying an e-challan.
- If you’re unsure about the veracity of an e-challan text that you have received, log onto the government portal (https://echallan.parivahan.gov.in/index/accused-challan), enter your vehicle details like chassis and registration number, and you’ll find if there are any challans in your name.
- Lastly, if you do fall for the scam and mistakenly click on the link, call on the government’s National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal helpline number 1930 to report the incident or do the same on www.cybercrime.gov.in. The next step would be to alert your bank and file an official police complaint.
