Fake ID apps under scanner

Mumbai: In a city like Mumbai, where the ticket checking staff often checks the passenger’s ticket and identification proof in a hurry to ensure the city’s safety, some mobile applications that help create fake identity particulars have come under the scanner of city police and railway authorities. The state cyber police, who is inquiring such fraudulent acts, said it may ban them if required. The Government Railway Police (GRP) and the city police recently arrested a few persons in possession of fake identity cards. According to a Ticket Checker (TC), he had collected more than 150 fake identity cards belonging to the police and high ranking officers from the accused, using their own pictures.

The TC, making his enquiries, located the mobile apps that the accused had used to make fake ID cards, including Aadhaar and PAN card, easily. The Maharashtra cyber IG Brijesh Singh  told that he is  “looking into the matter and gathering further details about such a fraudulent app and will proceed ahead to ban it”. Singh also said that if these apps were connected through social networking websites, it would be difficult to stop them.

The Anti -Tout Squad (ATS) of Railway is teamwork to prevent unauthorized business of e-ticketing in twin cities and touting activities at Passenger Reservation System (PRS) centers over Secunderabad Division.

An ATS squad officer, Shyam Rane said, “ We have so many illegal ticket sellers from the past few years. Recently I have found more than 50 cases of illegal Aadhaar card and pan card copies. Some of them use and make the same fake Aadhaar card which resembles the original. Most of the time officials don’t know about the minor details on the card because of which these people got saved.”

IG Singh said, “ We are looking into the matter and gathering further details about the app and will proceed ahead to ban it if needed.”

Police arrests three with fake identity cards
The Government Railway Police (GRP) arrested a real estate agent, Nitin Sonavane, last Thursday for travelling ticketless and passing off a fake police identity card when accosted by a ticket checker (TC). The TC,  D.K. Yadav, intercepted Sonavane at Dadar station after he alighted from the Howrah Express that arrived from Kalyan. He showed the TC a card, which had some other name on it, besides Thane city police being mentioned on it.

In another case, the Anti Tout Squad of the Railway, nabbed a man named, Ramesh Kushwah, who was allegedly involve in selling fraud tickets on the western line. The team recovered fake Aadhaar and pancards from his belongings, all which he had managed to make with the help of the mobile app.

In a third incident, the team nabbed a man Jayesh Gupta and two of his friends, from whom they recovered a fake Aadhaar card.