SEOKOK Mobile Tips & Tricks
Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Police has issued a warning about a scam where fraudsters send fake messages claiming that a fine has been imposed on vehicle and attempt to extort money.
How does a traffic e-challan scam work?
The modus operandi of this type of scam is getting individuals to click on a malicious link for payment of traffic e-challan. To establish trust of the individual, the fraudulent message is drafted in such a way that it looks real. The fraudulent message will read something like this – “Your Challan No. is … for vehicle number… having challan amount as Rs 500. For online payment of e-challan visit https://echallanparivahan.in/ you can also contact RTO office for disposal of challan, Regards, RTO.”
Once you click on this payment link to pay for the e-challan you will end up paying the cyber criminals instead of the police in a bid to discharge the traffic e-challan.
How to avoid traffic e-challan scam
The fraudsters have meticulously copied the format used by traffic authorities. So, the message may look real at first glance. However, if you examine it closely, you can spot the trap.
To spot whether an e-challan message is real or fake, look at these three things:
Firstly, if the vehicle number quoted is your vehicle number or not. Vehicle numbers can easily be verified by referring to the number plate of the vehicle or the smart card (blue book) issued by the Regional Transport Office (RTO).
Secondly, if the e-challan number is valid or not. The challan number can be verified by logging in to the e-challan website- https://echallan.parivahan.gov.in/index/accused-challan.
And thirdly the payment link in the fraudulent message is https://echallanparivahan.in. The scammers use links that read very similarly, and a casual glance can miss the difference. But do note that government websites will always have the domain ‘.gov.in’ such as https://echallan.parivahan.gov.in/. Therefore, click only on links that have a gov. in domain address.
