NEW DELHI: With the festive season in full swing, the Indian government and cybersecurity experts are once again issuing warnings to raise awareness against online e-challan scams. The scam involves cyber criminals sending messages to unsuspecting people claiming that they need to immediately pay their traffic violation dues via the ‘eChallan Parivahan’ portal set up by the Ministry of Raid Transport and Highways. Introduced in 2012 and implemented across India by 2017, the e-challan system allows the government and people to keep track of traffic violations associated with a vehicle and pay fines on the go.
How do online e-challan scams work?
While most scams are pretty easy to spot, in case of e-challan scams, it is pretty hard to distinguish between fake and legitimate messages since they look almost similar. According to the advisory issued by the Indian government, you may get an SMS or a message from an unknown number claiming that your vehicle has been fined for a traffic violation.
If you click on the link, it will open a fake website on your mobile phone or desktop that looks exactly like the original one, impersonating logos as well as the website layout and user interface. This fake website also has a section that lets you quickly pay your pending traffic violations. If you enter your bank details, they might be used by scammers to steal money from your account or even hack it.
Officials from the Pune city traffic branch also issued a press statement last year asking citizens to verify the authenticity of the ‘eChallan Parivahan link to make payments. Last year, a man from Jharkhand was arrested by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch for allegedly cheating thousands of vehicle owners with fake e-challan links and duping lakhs of rupees.
How to spot online e-challan scams?
In a statement to reporters last year, Faridabad DCP Headquarters and Cyber Crime Officer Hemendra Kumar Meena said that if you get such messages, avoid making any hasty replies or pay the challan. “Genuine e-challan messages include critical vehicle-specific details like engine and chassis numbers. They direct users to the official government site: echallan.parivahan.gov.in. In contrast, fraudulent messages subtly alter the link, removing “.gov” to make it appear as echallan.parivahan.in. It’s essential to ensure that the payment link ends with “.gov.in” for authenticity,” Meena added.
A quick way to see if you are on a legitimate government site is by checking if the website starts with ‘https’ in the address bar. If it begins with ‘http’, chances are it is a scam. If you want to pay your traffic violation challans online, we advise you head over to the legitimate website and refrain from clicking any links embedded in messages.
Scammers often dupe people of their money by creating a sense of urgency and asking them to immidiately pay a large sum of money if they don’t want the government to take any action against them.
Agencies