[Captain Slow]

Originally Posted by MT_Hyderabad

Sir, am I the first person who is telling you that you have been duped?

This is a scam. You were successful in not getting scammed as you had the proof.

If you were not having any proof, for whatever reason, they would have scammed you.
See what happens!

I agree here, You should have asked the person calling you to send their details - Aadhar card, ID card address etc, before you send any details/pics of your car.

[careind]

Originally Posted by AnkitHJain7

On the same night as the incident at around 9:30 PM, I received a call from Mr. X. He told me that he had spent the day on the phone trying to get any information possible on what had happened and who was at fault. At last he was able to find out that the vehicle was a drug carrier that had been carrying drugs at the time of the incident.

Better be careful. They are called con artists or confidence tricksters for a reason. If he has gone through the trouble of finding broken number plates and finding out the details from his “relative”, I don’t know why he was so very understanding. People who go that route are driven by vengeance and wouldn’t generally talk in an understanding manner.

In fact, they would have made their relative “ST” to file an FIR and would have gone through the police route.

And without finding the vehicle, how would him, police, or anyone know that vehicle was being used by drug runners? This seems to just get you agitated.

[MT_Hyderabad]

Originally Posted by AnkitHJain7

Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences! It was good to have so many of your insights into this being a possible scam as well. However I have another update that I didn't have time to share earlier, but should give more insight.

On the same night as the incident at around 9:30 PM, I received a call from Mr. X. He told me that he had spent the day on the phone trying to get any information possible on what had happened and who was at fault. At last he was able to find out that the vehicle was a drug carrier that had been carrying drugs at the time of the incident. The vehicle was suspected to be stolen as well. I have no idea how he figured this out. I regret not asking him how he came to know.

Now even drugs are involved.

I am worried for the extent of this scam. They are now printing number plates!?

This is a scam. I repeat, this is a scam.

Few pointers: If you are a drug dealer in Rajasthan, in which state numbered vehicle will you transport drugs?

Police check outside state cars at every other checkpost.

Secondly, this guy has many contacts still he is not going back to the police station to withdraw his complaint. He is scared of whom?

Thirdly, you are not alone to have gone through such a scam. There are usually terrorists (not drugs) involved.

https://www.indiatoday.in/technology...856-2023-09-04

[Raghu M]

Sir, there is no need to be tensed. Please stay calm, the onus of proving that you were indeed the person who hit that guy is on the Rajasthan police. No one is going to pursue this beyond a point. Even if they do, there is a long procedure for it and you don't need to be under any stress for that. You can always tell them that you were not in RS during that time and you have nothing to do with it if anyone else used your number plate. You have proof that you were in Chennai so that's a very simple and straight matter.

Coming to FASTag issue, it's become a sort of headache for me too. You have one instance and I have around 20 instances where balance is being deducted from my account while I am in Hyd. The deductions are close between 300 to 500 rupees. It's common sense that a car is not charged that much in any toll booth. You raised a complaint, you will get a refund but please note that whenever you take a vacation, the FASTag is going to be deducted across all the booths that you pass through even after one week of your journey. So, be ready to keep raising these complaints and attaching RC copy. It's a scam and trust me, whenever you see such messages, please raise them immediately.

[whitewing]

Originally Posted by AnkitHJain7

As for the FastTag, I do agree. Not sure they're correlated. However, in the moment, you can see why I'd link the two together. I will further try to press on the FastTag customer care to give me a resolution on this incident and provide me with photos of the vehicle that they claimed to have used my tag as well just to see what happens with that.

As a precaution (at the cost of your time), why don't you just get on to a tolled road near your place today, say, on the ECR ? That way, you have a record with the NHAI toll operator as well. Pretty sure if things turn bad, this would serve as a clear evidence.

[AnkitHJain7]

Originally Posted by whitewing

As a precaution (at the cost of your time), why don't you just get on to a tolled road near your place today, say, on the ECR ? That way, you have a record with the NHAI toll operator as well. Pretty sure if things turn bad, this would serve as a clear evidence.

This is a good idea, I will try to get out to a Toll Road today or tomorrow and get some proof my car was in the city.

Originally Posted by MT_Hyderabad

Now even drugs are involved.

I am worried for the extent of this scam. They are now printing number plates!?

This is a scam. I repeat, this is a scam.

Few pointers: If you are a drug dealer in Rajasthan, in which state numbered vehicle will you transport drugs?

Police check outside state cars at every other checkpost.

Secondly, this guy has many contacts still he is not going back to the police station to withdraw his complaint. He is scared of whom?

Thirdly, you are not alone to have gone through such a scam. There are usually terrorists (not drugs) involved.

https://www.indiatoday.in/technology...856-2023-09-04

I understand your skepticism, however if this is scam - What’s the angle? What was he trying to do?

If the initial scam was to scare me into paying money, why would you keep up the rouse after I confidently said I could prove my vehicle whereabouts. When it was clear I wasn't going to fall victim to an extortion attempt.

Why would he encourage I raise this issue to my local police/authorities himself. I just do not see the point if he was trying to scam.

I am used to dealing with scammers. Their MO is to ALWAYS drop the potential victim if they don’t seem like they’ll comply or play along. They would much rather try with another person instead of wasting their time on a dead lead.

Originally Posted by Raghu M

Sir, there is no need to be tensed. Please stay calm, the onus of proving that you were indeed the person who hit that guy is on the Rajasthan police. No one is going to pursue this beyond a point. Even if they do, there is a long procedure for it and you don't need to be under any stress for that. You can always tell them that you were not in RS during that time and you have nothing to do with it if anyone else used your number plate. You have proof that you were in Chennai so that's a very simple and straight matter.

Coming to FASTag issue, it's become a sort of headache for me too. You have one instance and I have around 20 instances where balance is being deducted from my account while I am in Hyd. The deductions are close between 300 to 500 rupees. It's common sense that a car is not charged that much in any toll booth. You raised a complaint, you will get a refund but please note that whenever you take a vacation, the FASTag is going to be deducted across all the booths that you pass through even after one week of your journey. So, be ready to keep raising these complaints and attaching RC copy. It's a scam and trust me, whenever you see such messages, please raise them immediately.

Thank you so much for your words of advice. I am definitely feeling a lot more relaxed and relieved. Both because of the time passed and from everyone else’s words of wisdom. It is very unlikely anything will come of this, so I will worry about this only if I have to! No point in crying over spilled milk that hasn’t even spilled yet.

As for the FastTag, that’s good to know. I have tried my best to always keep a close eye on all transactions not only on my FastTag but also my bank accounts and credit cards as well. So I immediately raised this complaint within an hour of receiving the fraudulent charge. Frustrating to know this isn’t an isolated incident, I’ll continue to keep an eye on things vigilantly.

[isiv]

Isn't HSRP supposed to prevent his very scenario? If you do have HSRPs, I believe that means you can legally claim those are fake plates being misused, because only one known set is issued by the RTO and installed by an RTO authorized dealer onto your car.

[airguitar]

Originally Posted by careind

I think there is a facility in the toll booth where the toll booth operators can levy toll based on vehicle number if the fastag does not work for some reason.
While doing so, if the operator keys in a wrong character or some one is using a fake number ( but still a different fastag), then the associated account gets debited.

Two fat-finger errors leading to the same registration number of the OP in a span of 45 mins on the same day are unlikely. One-off is possible, but two ? Hmmm.

[careind]

Originally Posted by airguitar

Two fat-finger errors leading to the same registration number of the OP in a span of 45 mins on the same day are unlikely. One-off is possible, but two ? Hmmm.

I said fat fingers OR fake number plates, and it is the SAME toll booth where it happened both the times.

It is possible that they had a fake number plate ( OPs ) AND their fastag ( not necessarily hacked or connected with OPs account ) did not work in that specific toll and the toll operator(s) keyed in the number in the plate when it crossed both times and, Viola, OPs fastag account gets debited.

If the fastag on the vehicle had gotten debited, then OP would have been completely oblivious of any wrong doings.

Else there is no explanation of why it happened only twice, and not in the other tolls in that stretch of NH, or on other days.

In my case, there was no way the fastag could have been forged/ used as I had destroyed it well in advance before selling and there was only a single infringement. If it had been forged, they would have struck GOLD as it is an exempted fastag.

[sgmuser]

Originally Posted by AnkitHJain7

Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences! It was good to have rid themselves of it.

Did you just share the real registration number of yours? Admins pls remove the photo of the fake number plate asap. He may not be able to do this now