Ticket scalping: Beware of private apps selling train tickets at high price

Train passengers, beware. Train tickets that aren’t available even in the waitlisted categories on the railway’s official websites or apps could appear ‘available’ on private ticketing apps, if you are ready to pay four times more. The tickets in trains scheduled to run two months later aren’t available in the official apps. However, these fake private apps sell the exact tickets at an exorbitant margin. For instance, tickets aren’t available in the Mangala Lakshadweep Express from Udupi to Tirur scheduled on August 17. According to IRCTC, Indian Railways’ official ticketing platform, tickets in this train are completely sold out. Tickets won’t be available for this train even at the railway station counter on that date.

However, tickets on this train are available in some private ticketing apps. A sleeper ticket in Mangala Lakshadweep Express from Udupi to Tirur costs Rs 255. However, the passenger has to pay up to Rs 960 if he/she books via the app. Two private apps that claim to be closely working with IRCTC sell tickets at prices four times higher than the official app.

Meanwhile, another app promises to provide a seat on the train if the customer purchases a ticket from Bhatkal to Ernakulam instead of Udupi to Tirur. This ticket costs Rs 380. Some passengers who have purchased tickets from these apps have reportedly lost their money as they have been given fake tickets. Passengers have written these complaints in the app review section. Passengers have been wondering how such private apps can acquire train tickets in huge numbers while they are shown as sold out in the official apps. They urge the railways to stop allotting seats to private apps without providing tickets to the passengers via its official apps and websites.