Mumbai, October 11: Ticketless travellers in Mumbai local train have found a new trick to evade penalties from railway officials. These commuters have found a way to circumvent the geo-fencing system and book tickets while travelling inside the train. This practice is more prevalent in the air-conditioned coaches that provide an unobstructed view of at least six coaches in the BHEL rakes.

The Times of India, quoting a Railway official, reported that a TTE takes at least 5 minutes to cover the whole coach. This gives the ticketless passengers ample time to book tickets from the UTSonmobile app. UTS on mobile is a GPS-based Railway mobile ticketing app that allows daily commuters to book tickets from their phones. The app uses GPS to track the physical territory of a traveller. Tickets from this app can only be booked if the smartphone user is 5 km away from the railway station. However, a few ticketless travellers have learnt to bypass the security system and book tickets inside the train. Cyber Fraud: Navi Mumbai Man Duped of Rs 43 Lakh Under Pretext Of Earning Big Returns.

Know Modus Operandi:

Passengers access PDF links containing QR codes for each station from an illegal app developed by an unidentified man. The passengers are able to purchase tickets from any place using the QR codes that are provided in the PDF documents of the application. UTS on mobile doesn't allow passengers to access their gallery. The commuters seem to have found a solution to that, too. They open the link and ask their fellow passengers to take a photo of the QR code. They then scan the QR code from the other person's phone and purchase the ticket. New Online Fraud in Mumbai: Woman Loses Rs 2 Lakh After Cyber Con Posing as Her Employer Makes Her Purchase Gift Cards, FIR Lodged.

A senior Railway official told  Times of India that this came to their notice after a relative of an employee who travelled by local observed this malpractice. Railway authorities are now mulling dynamic QR codes that will keep changing every few minutes. This is the only solution to the problem, an official said the media outlet.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 11, 2023 05:58 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).