Tatkal tickets are for last-minute travel and released 24 hours before departure regularly bought in seconds by bots or retailers, leaving true visitors stranded. A network of more than 40 agencies active on Telegram and WhatsApp identified by India Today’s OSINT group. But it represents only a fraction of the bigger Tatkal E Ticketing Racket, where thousands of marketers appear to be active, and business keeps increasing, in spite of government law.
Tatkal E Ticketing Racket uncovered
Not just retailers, the e-ticketing rackets are rife with tech geeks and fake service providers who claim to exploit alleged loopholes in the IRCTC systems, working through fake Telegram and WhatsApp accounts. To know their identities, the admins use phone numbers.
The Aadhar-authenticated IRCTC consumer IDs openly sold for just Rs. 360 each, as per posts. These debts allegedly used to generate OTPs for booking Tatkal tickets. But the process isn’t guide—marketers declare to use bots or automatic browser extensions to speed up bookings and crush the system for genuine customers.
Bots on sale
India Today also discovered that the Tatkal E Ticketing Racket admins perform complete-fledged websites promoting bots like Dragon, JETX, Ocean, Black Turbo, and Formula One—marketed for “instantly Tatkal bookings” and priced among Rs 999 and Rs 5,000. After purchase, users guided by Telegram channels on how to use them.
Malware analysis of bot file named WinZip, downloaded as an APK, performed by using the malware scanner site VirusTotal. The analysis revealed it to Trojan – a malware designed to steal user data.
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