[//HB]

Mumbai gang siphons off Rs 20 crore with 4,000 fake FASTag refunds
The cyber crime cell of the city crime branch busted a gang running an online fraud to siphon off crores. By taking advantage of a loophole in a banking system, the gang had made 4,259 fraudulent FASTag recharge-refund claims and siphoned off Rs 20 crore.

The cyber crime cell arrested four people from parts of Karnataka who were beneficiaries of the fraud money. The four accused, identified as Purshottam Revanna (40), Kiran Manju (35), Rajesh Shivanna (34) and Rasanna alias Prakash Shivanna (37), were booked under the Information Technology Act and under sections for cheating and forgery of the IPC.

The complainant in the case, a bank, said that they had launched e-wallet services for their customers to purchase FASTags via apps. The bank also purchased software to handle the day-to-day transactions of this system.

After downloading the app, anyone could buy or recharge their FASTags using UPIs, said a police officer. A UPI, or a Unified Payments Interface, powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application, merging several banking features under one application.

Initially, the bank investigated the fraud internally, and found that unidentified persons had claimed huge refunds for FASTags. Some of the accounts that had claimed refunds were non-functioning or had zero balance.

A police officer said, “Further technical investigations found that the gang had taken advantage of a loophole in the system to claim 4,259 refunds, and had siphoned the money from the bank ledger account. Between January 2019 and January 2020, the gang made 4,259 recharge transactions on FASTags, and then claimed a refund by showing that the KYC submission was erroneous. They caused a wrongful loss of Rs 19.8 crore.”

After forensic investigation, the cyber crime police tracked the beneficiaries of the refunds to Chennai, Bengaluru, and other parts of Karnataka. Four were arrested from Karnataka, while the police are looking for a few more people involved in the racket. The king pin of the fraud is also absconding.

The police added that the investigation would take a little longer to complete, as the accused had transferred money from one account to several different accounts in different parts of the country and withdrawn money from different ATMs, which would take time to track.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...campaign=cppst

@Mods - do you see the need for a dedicated new thread related to FASTAG FRAUDS ?

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by //HB

@Mods - do you see the need for a dedicated new thread related to FASTAG FRAUDS ?

This in my humble opinion should NOT be classified as a FasTag related fraud. It is a banking fraud, done using an application developed by a bank and exposed to its customers. The FasTag system is infact working fine.

Why I say here is because I see a concentrated attempt by the media to bring down the FasTag concept and show case it as a failed project.

If there are gaps in FasTag system (like some one pointed out; duplicate deductions etc.) let us highlight that. But the media reports some how reminded me of some news headlines during the De.Mo days. "Demontisation woes: 50 year old youngster slips and falls in bathroom and injured, as he was preparing to go to the ATM" - kind of head lines.

[saisree]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

This in my humble opinion should NOT be classified as a FasTag related fraud. It is a banking fraud, done using an application developed by a bank and exposed to its customers. The FasTag system is infact working fine.

Absolutely Nailed it. We as an informed users should be able to distinguish these frauds and shouldn't pay a heed to these type of attention mongering news. Rather, we need to comment in their own page about their poor knowledge on the system and shame them to the core

Originally Posted by sachinpk

news headlines during the De.Mo days. "Demontisation woes: 50 year old youngster slips and falls in bathroom and injured, as he was preparing to go to the ATM" - kind of head lines.

[Fordlover88]

I had a bad experience recently on nivedita toll near kolkata. My airtel tag was not detected & the status showed invalid card. I had enough balance in my account & showed them but they argued that there's some software glitch and i have to pay by cash. I was assured that if i pay cash the amount won't be deducted from my wallet. With no other option left,i paid with cash & left. But after 10 mins i got a message for deduction from my account. The card worked flawlessly on other tolls after that. While returning, i faced the same problem on the same toll again. This time i kept on arguing & didn't pay cash. They scanned using hand held scanner & did a few stuff in their website and ultimately let me pass through. I got the deduction sms after sometime. Is this some kind of fraud? How do i get a refund of incorrect deduction? I tried calling airtel customer care but didn't find any option to report incorrect deduction.

[ksameer1234]

Originally Posted by Fordlover88

I had a bad experience recently on nivedita toll near kolkata. My airtel tag was not detected & the status showed invalid card. I had enough balance in my account & showed them but they argued that there's some software glitch and i have to pay by cash. I was assured that if i pay cash the amount won't be deducted from my wallet. With no other option left,i paid with cash & left. But after 10 mins i got a message for deduction from my account.

This is most likely an intended fraud by toll operators. I have had quite a few instances where the tag reader shows either invalid tag or insufficient balance. I always stand my ground and show them the balance in tag from last deduction sms. After this confrontation, the tag reader works well magically. The sms for previous deduction showing balance is good enough to let toll operator know that he has run out of luck scamming people.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by ksameer1234

This is most likely an intended fraud by toll operators.

Precisely, and this should be reported to the NHAI and its nodal agency who is rolling out FasTag. One thing I noticed is that many of these schemes have a very huge flaw; it expects the average Indian driver/citizen to be honest and bank and toll booth officials to be even more honest . In my humble opinion (again), this assumption is wrong. We as a country are used to 'black' transactions (if it helps us), willing to pay a bribe (if that helps us) and willing to flout the laws (if we know the law cannot catchup). So the government should have thought about the chances of toll booth operators commiting fraud. In fact the chances of them commiting an organized/planned fraud is much more higher than an individual driver. What needs to be done is to change the law/rule and force the onus of having a working FasTag system to be on the toll booth operator. Other wise, this group (who most often are hand in glove with the political class) will ensure that this efficient system will get scuttled. The policy of US police should be the motto here; TRUST BUT, VERIFY (or, "In God we Trust, but for others it is the NCIS - National Crime Information System").

[Fordlover88]

Originally Posted by ksameer1234

This is most likely an intended fraud by toll operators.

Ok. Will keep this in mind from next time. Is there any way of getting back the incorrect deduction amount?

[NPV]

Originally Posted by Fordlover88

I had a bad experience recently on nivedita toll near kolkata. My airtel tag was not detected & the status showed invalid card. I had enough balance in my account & showed them but they argued that there's some software glitch and i have to pay by cash.

Next time if you're in a similar situation where your tag account has sufficient balance but isn't detected at a toll plaza, do not pay cash - you have the right to pass without paying cash and there is a gazette notification to this effect. If I remember correctly, it is attached with an earlier post on this thread, download and keep a copy handy on your smartphone.

[ksameer1234]

Originally Posted by Fordlover88

Ok. Will keep this in mind from next time. Is there any way of getting back the incorrect deduction amount?

You can raise a ticket from fastag account of your issuing bank. In such cases, I have raised a ticket from ICICI fastag account attaching scan of the toll cash payment receipt. The reversal of amount happens in about 2-3 weeks but it is seamless once ticket is logged and no additional information is asked.

This gazette notification (link) says that if toll operator is not able to read from a valid tag, the vehicle must be permitted to leave without payment of any fee.

[sparky@home]

A scam which just came to light. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/73947846.CMS

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by sparky@home

A scam which just came to light. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/73947846.CMS

Getting a 404 error! ToI has taken down the report?

[sachinpk]

[More than being a FasTag fraud, this is a financial fraud. The fraudsters exploited a loop hole in the bank provided software - and not the core FasTag system.

[sridhu]

The link to the article:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/73947846.cms

Originally Posted by sachinpk

... The fraudsters exploited a loop hole in the bank provided software - and not the core FasTag system.

What exactly is the loophole? I did not find that in the article or anywhere.

[binand]

Originally Posted by sridhu

What exactly is the loophole? I did not find that in the article or anywhere.

They have not specified it (which makes me suspect it is still exploitable). Moneylife names it as Axis Bank:

https://www.moneylife.in/article/fas...ort/59370.html

My best guess is a scam wherein a bank-provided app is used to recharge Fastags, and then the app/bank is conned into believing (erroneously) that the tag is actually KYC-failed and therefore the recharge amount must be refunded. So you get the recharge amount back and also balance in the Fastag account.

[Thilak29]

AXIS bank has mailed me this morning stating incorrect vehicle class claim by a toll booth.

Apparently the booth claimed Class 3 ( goods three-wheeler) while the vehicle is a car. They have settled the claim with NPCI / booth and are requesting RC copy and photos of the vehicle to refute the claim (current and future) from the bank's end. They are 'threatening' blacklisting of tag in case I do not submit within two days. I have made a submission and keeping fingers crossed. This couldn't have happened at any worse time as I have multiple long drives planned for the next couple of days.
So much for being the early adopter (2016) and inefficient system we live with.

Excerpt from email

We would like to inform you that for the Captioned Toll Trip Date we have been charged Violation /Differential Amount from Toll Agency and the same have been settled by NPCI to the Toll Acquiring Bank. Violation Dispute have been raised by Toll Agency as they have identified a Higher Vehicle Class for your Toll Trip against the Vehicle Class Mapped by us at our end.

Since the Vehicle Class Identified by Toll Plaza for your Trip is higher than the Vehicle Class Mapped with us, we have manually charged the Differential Amount from your Wallet Account as settlement for the Violation is already recovered from us by NPCI and paid to Acquiring Toll Plaza Bank.

Incase if the Vehicle Class Identified by Toll Plaza is incorrect/invalid then we would be required to Raise a Dispute Chargeback with Toll Plaza Acquiring Bank at NPCI Portal. In order to raise a Chargeback we would be required to furnish with Front and side Images of Vehicle along with Vehicle Registration Copy. Kindly organize to share the same to us within 2 days of receipt of E-Mail to raise chargeback.

Incase if do not receive RC Copy we would be required to Blacklist your Fastag with us and would be activating the same only when RC Image is audited and updated at our end. This would also help to take up with Toll Plaza Acquiring Banks in case if there are any future Violations, if any raised.

Further, we would also like to inform you that Chargeback Claims are subject to approval of Toll Agencies/Acquiring Bank and Disputes needs to be raised within 30 Days of Toll Transaction Date. Upon Chargeback Acceptance we would reverse the Manually Debit Violation amount for your Toll Trip and credit the amount in your Wallet Account. For your reference Toll Trip Details and Vehicle Class Details updated to your Wallet Account are provided below.