A Vande Bharat train. Representational image.
Credit: Pixabay Photo
IRCTC has identified the real culprits behind the fast booking of railway tickets --- people using fraudulent user IDs. Tickets of certain trains, even those scheduled to leave in 60 days, were being booked within minutes of the booking window opening causing crises.
In the last five months, IRCTC, while analysing ticket purchases, detected 2.9 lakh suspicious PNRs. As per a TOI report, top railway officials said between January and May, IRCTC deactivated 2.5 crore user IDs while 20 lakh user IDs were revalidated during a special drive.
An official quoted by the publication said, "A total of 134 complaints have been registered with the national cyber crime portal and over 6,800 disposal email domains have been blocked. This drive will be intensified further."
Disposable email address is a distinct email address that is temporary. The email is used for each contact or entity or it can be used for a limited number of times.
The masterminds behind this scam have been using disposable email id to book tickets and charge unsuspecting passengers more.
As per the report, sources said this issue is limited to certain routes and trains.
"So, the focus is on weeding out users who are beating the system. Passengers can't be blamed as there is a genuine shortage of confirmed tickets. So, the effort has been to increase capacity and to run more."
IRCTC are employing "systemic measures" to address the issue. Officials said they these measures include leading content-delivering network and anti-BOT application along with sophisticated technology which will ensure a smooth booking process for genuine travellers.
The anti-BOT application is a security technique which will help differentiate between genuine human users and automated bots or scripts.
Notably the IRCTC's bookings reached its highest ever per minute booking of 31,814 tickets on May 22, 2025, at 10 am.
An official said, "attempt versus booking ratio has increased from 43.1 per cent to 62.2 per cent between October 2024 and May 2025," adding that no travel platforms can guarantee a confirmed ticket booking, and people should not fall victim to this.