In a major operation against ticket booking fraud, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) flagged around 2.9 lakh suspicious PNRs that were booked within the first five minutes of reservation windows opening. According to a media report, this action was part of a special drive carried out between January and May 2025 to uncover irregularities in the ticketing process.
Crackdown on fake accounts and email domains.
According to top railway officials, IRCTC has deactivated 2.5 crore suspected user IDs and placed another 20 lakh IDs under revalidation. A total of 134 complaints have been registered on the national cyber crime portal, and over 6,800 disposable email domains have been blocked.
Disposable email addresses, which are often used temporarily or for single-use communication, were found to be misused by fraudsters to bypass booking limits and secure tickets at scale. These tickets were later sold at higher prices to passengers.
Limited to select trains and routes
Sources said the issue of tickets selling out instantly is mostly confined to certain trains and routes. “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 trains, particularly during peak travel seasons,” an official told TOI.
Security upgrades to block bots
Officials said IRCTC has introduced systemic changes to prevent misuse of the platform. These include the use of content delivery networks and anti-BOT technologies to differentiate between real users and automated scripts. These upgrades aim to make the ticketing process smoother and more secure for genuine travellers.
On May 22, 2025, at 10 am, IRCTC recorded its highest ever per-minute booking of 31,814 tickets. “Attempt versus booking ratio has increased from 43.1% to 62.2% between Oct 2024 and May 2025,” said an official.
Don’t Fall for ‘Confirmed Ticket’ Claims on Travel Platforms, Say Officials
Railway officials have cautioned passengers against trusting travel platforms that promise confirmed ticket bookings. “None of the travel platforms can guarantee confirmed ticket bookings and hence people should not fall prey to them,” an official warned.
Some business-to-consumer (B2C) websites offer premium services with claims like triple refunds in certain cases. However, officials advise users to remain cautious while using such services.
