Railways suspends 2.5 crore user IDs suspected of fraudulent ticket booking

On May 22, the Railways recorded the highest number of bookings in one minute, with 31,814 tickets being booked on the upgraded platform. Representational file image. | Photo Credit: V. Raju

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has deactivated 2.5 crore suspect user IDs as part of a digital overhaul of its ticketing infrastructure, officials said on Wednesday (June 4, 2025).

“Through the deployment of anti-bot systems and integration with a leading Content Delivery Network (CDN) service provider, the Railways has curbed unauthorised automated bookings by unscrupulous agents and improved the access of the website to the genuine users,” a senior Railway official said. “131 complaints of the suspicious users have been lodged with the cyber crime cell in the last four months.”

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The new system has effectively mitigated all bot traffic, which usually peaks during the first five minutes after the Tatkal booking window opens. Bot traffic accounts for up to 50% of overall login attempts during this period, the official added. 

Revalidating suspect IDs

IRCTC is also taking additional steps to revalidate suspicious user IDs through verification of mobile numbers and email IDs. In the last 15 days, around 20 lakh user IDs have been put into revalidation mode to confirm the authenticity of the users, officials said. 

On March 6, the IRCTC set its highest single-day ticket booking record of 16,17,404 tickets. Later, on May 22, the Railways recorded the highest number of bookings in one minute, with 31,814 tickets being booked on the upgraded platform. 

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The Railways has also introduced new user protocols with additional safety measures. Users not authenticated via Aadhaar can book opening Advance Reservation Period (ARP), Tatkal, or Premium Tatkal tickets only three days after registration, while Aadhaar-verified users can book all tickets without delay.

On May 7, IRCTC’s Chairman and Managing Director wrote to the Railway Board seeking approval to implement the plan of allowing only Aadhaar/PAN-authenticated users to book opening Advance Reservation Period and Tatkal tickets during the first ten minutes. 

Boosting performance

After upgrading the ticketing infrastructure, the Railways noticed that the average daily user logins increased from 69.08 lakh in the 2023–24 financial year to 82.57 lakh in 2024–25, registering a 19.5% rise. Average daily ticket bookings grew 11.85% in the same period, from 12.41 lakh in 2023-24 to 13.88 lakh in 2024-25. “E-Ticketing now accounts for 86.38% of total reserved ticket bookings, which is a scale up of 3.7% from 82.68% in 2023-24,” the official said. 

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Officials said that the ‘attempt versus booking ratio’ has increased from 43.06% to 62.22% in the period from October 2024 to May 2025.

The IRCTC has also taken measures to log out Individual users if they exceed 25 inquiries per session during Tatkal and ARP hours, officials said, adding that users can book only one ticket per login session, except for return/onward journeys. To book another ticket, users must log out and log in again. Also, overseas IP addresses are blocked at the network level during ARP and Tatkal booking hours, officials said. 

Except for defence agents, agent bookings have also been restricted between 8:00 a.m. and 8:10 a.m. which are the opening ARP timings for General Quota tickets, and also between 10:00 a.m. and 10:10 a.m. as well as from 11:00 a.m. to 11:10 a.m. during the opening for Tatkal Quota tickets.

“Only one Tatkal ticket per day/per train is allowed to agents,” officials said. 

Published - June 04, 2025 09:19 pm IST