All Booked At 8am! How 'BrahMos', 'Avengers' And 'Doctor Doom' Were Used To Scalp IRCTC Tickets

Last Updated:November 10, 2025, 14:18 IST

RPF uncovered a syndicate using software like 'BrahMos' and 'Tesla' to hijack IRCTC train tickets, reselling them at high margins

Syndicate uses tools like 'BrahMos' to bypass IRCTC's security.

A months-long probe by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) has exposed an organised racket that uses automated software to snap up long-distance train tickets from the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) within seconds of the booking window opening, leaving ordinary travellers with waitlists or no tickets at all.

According to RPF officials, the syndicate is structured across states and comprises software developers, online administrators, so-called “super-sellers" and local agents. The gang collects passenger details a day in advance and, at the precise moment the booking window opens, deploys sophisticated programs that auto-fill forms, intercept one-time passwords and bypass captchas, completing transactions in 10-15 seconds. Several arrests have been made in recent weeks as part of the investigation, the officials said.

The RPF’s findings name multiple illicit tools used by the racket, which operate under memorable labels such as ‘BrahMos’, ‘Tesla’, ‘Avengers’ and ‘Doctor Doom’. While some of these programmes can reportedly be leased for a flat monthly fee of Rs 1,500-2,500, the most advanced offerings, described by investigators as “BrahMos-class", are sold on a per-PNR basis.

Investigators said that this enables the syndicate to convert a single PNR into multiple high-margin sales: a sleeper class PNR that costs about Rs 800 in the open market can fetch up to Rs 2,000 from agents; a third-AC ticket of roughly Rs 2,300 can be resold for as much as Rs 4,000 during peak demand.

IRCTC’s 8 am opening for long-distance bookings has become the focal point for the racket. While genuine travellers contend with captchas and step-wise verification, the illegal software reportedly executes parallel operations, pre-loading passenger details, auto-reading OTPs and circumventing automated checks, to secure seats before human users complete the process.

Officials pointed to procedural safeguards such as NPCI guidelines that prohibit automated OTP retrieval and emphasise captchas as anti-bot measures; the RPF’s probe indicates those controls are being actively subverted.

The investigation has prompted countermeasures from railway authorities. To blunt automated onslaughts, payment processing for certain time-sensitive bookings is being throttled in the opening seconds of the window, and the Railways have tightened identity verification criteria, restricting bookings to Aadhaar-verified IDs in some cases. These steps have, in turn, created knock-on effects: the price of forged or fraudulently obtained identity credentials on the black market has reportedly increased sharply, investigators said.

While the RPF continues to target interstate networks, officials acknowledge the challenge of staying ahead of evolving software and opaque online marketplaces. “We are closing in on developers and the organisations that monetise their tools," one investigating officer said, adding that dismantling the entire chain, from code creators to retail agents, is necessary to restore fairness to the booking system.

For lakhs of passengers travelling to states with heavy outbound demand such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the revelations explain a recurring frustration: tickets for popular trains are often unavailable months in advance, and those that appear at the 8 am release vanish within seconds.

The RPF has urged travellers to report suspected fraud and to rely only on authorised booking channels, while the Railways pledged to continue strengthening technical and regulatory barriers against automated exploitation.

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