[ShivrajG]

Hi Guys,

I was travelling from Goa to Pune Yesterday, at Kini Toll plaza I was asked to pay in Cash by the attendant, I asked them about the problem they said the FastTag server is down.
I told them if the server is down they have to let me or anyone with FastTag pass and not to charge however they were adamant on Cash.

I did not budge and then this guy gets the handheld scanner and scans the Tag and let me go. And yes! the amount was debited from my account.

Is this some kind of scam going on with the FastTag ?

I am a regular reader of this forum and hence I am aware of my rights on road.

[Jagann13]

Yes. It is a kind of scam which happens rarely. I'm not into the law, but are we supposed to pay in cash if their detector is faulty?

Also, I have heard my friend telling that they have been charged twice using this scam. Basically, money is deducted from the tag and you will also be paying it in cash. You will get to know after few miles as a message that a sum is debited. When you go back and ask for a refund, they will simply ask you to go through a hectic refund process.

Please be aware, for whatever reason, don't pay in cash and thank you for opening it to the world.

[ShivrajG]

Originally Posted by Jagann13

Yes. It is a kind of scam which happens rarely. I'm not into the law, but are we supposed to pay in cash if their detector is faulty?

No we should not pay if they don't have the FastTag server online or any other issues, just don't get into some aggressive argument with them and state the law and they shall let you pass in any case (Genuine or Scam).
here is the link
https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/...ry/393019.html

I may be wrong on the law percept however if it was working which actually was why did they ask in cash?

Few of the cars in front of me directly paid cash and also the barrier mounted FastTag was missing so I highly doubt that they were collecting double. The car in front of me didn't collect receipt nor they offered so maybe they are collecting extra funds (Siphoning off? )

[libranof1987]

Yea, they try to claim the whole "scanner not working" routine on the Expressway too. You did right by refusing to pay cash. The other thing is to ask for the complaint book if they say Fastag isn't working - some members have either gotten away without having to pay toll or the Fastag equipment suddenly starts working.

[Bigzero]

I wonder, how much does it take for the authorities to post notices to this effect on tollgates? or larger boards for that matter? Why keep all these important info hidden away and allow road users to be scammed?

[jkrishnakj]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Yea, they try to claim the whole "scanner not working" routine on the Expressway too. You did right by refusing to pay cash. The other thing is to ask for the complaint book if they say Fastag isn't working - some members have either gotten away without having to pay toll or the Fastag equipment suddenly starts working.

This is exactly the model that worked well with me. It has happened only once though, between Salem and Avanashi. The moment I asked for the book, I was let go. The debit did not happen then. Perhaps, it was a genuine issue.

Coming to think of that day, it was a lazy weekday afternoon with probably all lanes almost empty.

[Agarwal_Aayush]

Yes this is pretty common, my friend has had to face this issue twice.
Toll plaza guys say that the fatstag scanner is not working or these guys show that fatstag is disabled. Since he was not very well versed with the law in case they say the scanner is not working, he paid up cash and moved.
Since Paytm generally takes half an hour to 1 hour to update the amount deducted, he got the message that the amount has been deducted on the toll plaza where he paid the amount in cash.
He did not dispute the amount thinking that it is a less amount (~23 INR), but I am sure these guys must be milking in lacs daily by duping people.

[AkMar]

This has been reported by someone on Twitter as well:

https://twitter.com/NaraayanKannan/s...732633600?s=20
Everyone in #Maharashtra beware #Kini Toll Gate at #kolhapur shuts all
@FASTag_NETC lanes forces ppl to pay cash. @MORTHIndia @nitin_gadkari rules state if toll gate shuts, the passage is free if we have a working tag. Plus this lunatic tries to break our mirror!!

https://twitter.com/NaraayanKannan/s...067659265?s=20
Dear @nitin_gadkari @AnilDeshmukhNCP this man abused us, threatened us, tried to damage our car for his toll operator. The operator refused to disclose his name to us to lodge a complaint, fought with us to withhold his identity for 20 mins. @DGPMaharashtra this is illegal.

[humyum]

Has happened to me on the Toll Naka on the Old Mumbai Pune Highway when I was going to Matheran a few weeks back.

He said 'Fast Tag is not working' and asked me to pay 41 rupees. I paid and after sometime I get a message that money has been deducted by paytm's fast tag. It was a small amount but still cheating, so I did not let it pass.

I got home and I complained to Paytm which has a facility for such redressals. I uploaded my Rc book and receipt of the toll along with the picture of the toll that was charged by Paytm (Since you cannot take screenshots from the paytm app). The receipt had the timing on which toll was collected physically and it had a 30 second difference from the amount collected by Paytm.

In a week's time I got the 41 rupees back.

[WhiteSierra]

This happened to me when I was not there in the car.

The incident happened almost an year back when my family was travelling from Hyderabad to Yadagirigutta temple. Back then, government hasn't mandated Fastags yet, I don't think even the toll booths were equipped with an extra handheld fastag scanning machine. So my relatives came from our home town and my folks decided to visit Yadgirigutta temple. My brother was driving our Innova. Our Innova is linked to my phone number and my bank account, I purchased Kotak Mahindra Fastag for our Innova and loaded 1000 rupees in Fastag wallet. There's only a single toll gate called Gudur Toll Plaza.

While going, the Fastag worked just fine, the amount got debited.(But I always receive a message from Kotak Mahindra bank after ages, compared to PayTm fastag which gives instant notifications via app and sms).

While coming back to Hyderabad, the toll plaza guy told that the Tag is not being read. My brother and parents did not suspect him a bit nor did not call me for confirmation, they gave him cash (95 rupees) and left. After coming home, my brother told me that the Fastag worked while going but did not work while coming back. As we were talking, I got a message that the amount has been debited from my wallet. (this was like almost 1 and half hour after the transaction has been done / the vehicle crossed the toll gate). I took the receipt and called the toll gate manager number (there were 3 numbers out of which only 1 worked). He answered the call and I asked him why they charged twice for my car, he asked me for my vehicle registration number and time when the car crossed the toll gate, after providing him the details, he apologized and told that he will send me for free in the next trip within 1 year.


That is not a regular route we take nor do we visit the temple frequently unless we have some relatives coming from our hometown. So all in all, we lost 95 rupees, this might be a small amount, but imagine people travelling interstate one way and end up paying amounts like 300, 500 or so. It is such a huge loss for them and these fraudsters should be held accountable and their toll tenders should be cancelled.

There are many videos on YouTube regarding toll scams, here are a few:


A fake toll plaza

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMECxc262qg

The toll operator here says "Yaha chalega hi nahi" (It doesn't work here at all)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vGsY3RHdws

Time scam: (It is ok for 1 way travelers, but 2 way travelers would lose money if they cross the 24 hour deadline)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpYyeU04nig

[airbus]

This appears to be a scam. Active scanners might still read the FASTag. I would not pay cash if they say scanners are down. I got free passes number of times. Previously, I had raised a complaint on public grievance portal against one toll plaza on NH-48, that seem to have worked.

[avira_tk]

Things going exactly as anyone would have predicted, they're goons and half a chance, force you to pay cash. I've experienced this in a restaurant once, credit/ debit card didn't work and the tone became threatening almost instantly, this, on museum Road in bangalore, imagine some toll plaza in the middle of nowhere.

Tweeting the minister isn't going to help, that'll make things worse. Always carry cash on you, these guys won't hesitate to use violence, they know you're helpless, most of us are. Cameras won't be working and good luck getting medical assistance.

I'm an early fastag adopter, going by my earlier experience, I was certain the server down excuse would be quite common once more vehicles started using it.

[itwasntme]

WhiteSierra, if your brother received a toll paper receipt for the cash paid, you should have uploaded that to your tag issuer.

They usually refund within 2 weeks, which is my personal experience with ICICI on 2 separate occasions when I was charged 2 singles instead of the discounted return fare.

[Torque_Curve]

I was reading up on this topic myself earlier today. It was a co-incidence that I did my recharge and that message too took a while to come, a delay similar to that of the amount debited after crossing a toll. I learnt two things while doing this research, the first one being that you can get an instant update for your balance on text message by giving a missed call to 7208053999 (valid for HDFC fastags at least, as far as I know. I use the same). The message can prove that you have the required balance to pass the toll plaza by paying the amount in question via the tag.
Alternatively, if they refuse to acknowledge that you are not supposed to pay if their machine/mechanisms fail, there is a gazette notification that proves the aforementioned point. Attaching a copy of the same for everyone's convenience.
I know that showing this notification is one thing and those corrupt toll employees accepting it is another thing altogether, but I'm sure there are some of us who will put our foot down. After all, its not about the amount, its about how they cheat people in broad daylight.

Fastag gazette notification.pdf

[GTO]

Damn, have fallen victim to this, although I don't think it was an intentional scam. The scanner on the Bandra-Worli Sealink just wouldn't read my Fastag or raise the barrier. Finally, I had to reverse, enter the alternate lane & pay in cash. Reached home and saw the prompt on my Fastag account being debited too .

They know less than 1% of people are going to waste time contesting a small toll charge.

Next time, I won't pay and insist on the hand scanner. Thanks for starting this thread .