A Mumbai-based slapstick comedian has warned individuals about what he described as a extremely subtle visitors challan rip-off after narrowly avoiding getting into his card particulars on a pretend web site designed to imitate the Authorities of India’s official e-challan portal.
Taking to X, Shridhar V shared screenshots of the pretend web site and mentioned that he obtained an SMS claiming his car had been caught dashing by a visitors digicam. The message, despatched from an everyday cellular quantity, urged speedy cost and included a shortened hyperlink. “Who says Indians will not be revolutionary?” he wrote, including, “I nearly entered my card particulars earlier than googling the area.”
In response to the screenshots, the hyperlink led to a webpage branded as “eChallan – Digital Site visitors/Transport Enforcement Resolution,” full with the Ashoka emblem and claims that it was an initiative of the Ministry of Street Transport and Highways below the Authorities of India. The web page displayed an alert studying, “Pressing Cost Required! You’ve gotten an excellent visitors superb of INR 500. Pay instantly.”
The pretend portal listed a single pending challan with a protracted reference quantity, division tag marked as “Site visitors,” the quantity of ₹500, and a outstanding inexperienced “Pay Now” button. A warning under claimed that failure to pay might end in “hefty fines, license suspension, or court docket summons.”
Nonetheless, a better look revealed the rip-off. The browser’s handle bar confirmed the area as echallan.pasvahan.icu, reasonably than the official echallan.parivahan.gov.in. Using a shortened hyperlink within the authentic SMS additional masked the vacation spot URL, making the fraud tougher to detect at first look.
In a follow-up submit, the comic mentioned that the pretend web site supplied choices to look by challan quantity, car quantity, or driving licence quantity. He famous that no matter data a consumer entered would seem alongside the challan on the subsequent display screen, creating the phantasm that official information have been being fetched. “No matter you enter because the car/DL quantity comes subsequent to the challan quantity within the subsequent web page to make it much more plausible,” he wrote.
“Insane quantity of fraud should be taking place with so many individuals. By the point police begins appearing on it, they’d make hundreds of thousands! Horrible,” Shridhar mentioned.
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Social media reactions
A number of customers replied saying that they had obtained comparable messages a number of instances.
“omg thanks for this.. i have been getting these messages too!” one consumer wrote. “Sure. I nearly did the identical final week. Felt one thing amiss and tried verifying and realised that it’s a pretend one. Nonetheless obtained duped of ₹999 with a pretend HSRP quantity plate web site,” shared one other.
“It is subtle as a result of earlier scammers used to create UIs and web sites, and many others., which required information and precision in improvement. However with AI, scammers have reached a really superior stage,” wrote a 3rd consumer.
“I obtained the very same mesaage, i used to be milliseconds away from clicking the hyperlink when it struck me that the message is from a telephone quantity. this stage of sophistication, yaar itna talent aur dimaag laga kar seedhe tarike se bhi paise bana sakte hai!” commented one other.
