[DrCar]

I would like to share my experience on how I got scammed at a toll naka

Location - Mumbai at Dahisar toll naka

I was travelling from Kandivali to Mira Road for delivering a package.

Everything seems fine when toll was deducted at 8:39pm. Notice the difference between toll crossing time and money deducted time.


I was returning back and toll was crossed at around 8.55 with deduction happening at around 9.01

Fair enough.

I received a surprise when I reached home and checked Paytm notifications.


I must be a superhuman or would be driving a spaceship at ultrasonic speeds to cross the same toll naka in the same direction within 5 minutes of each other. For anyone residing in Mumbai knows that it isn't possible to cross same toll even in 20 minutes, if one decides to drive in circles around the toll.

One of my known was explaining me about similar situation at the same toll naka that he got involved into 2 days back. He barged into the toll office nearby and saw that there were four others who were arguing about the similar scam that happened with them and demanded refunds.

They say digitalisation will kill corruption. Now I think that corruption is so deep rooted that even the computers are learning the tricks

I have mailed Paytm about it. But don't expect them to do anything.

[mayuresh]

Originally Posted by DrCar

I must be a superhuman or would be driving a spaceship at ultrasonic speeds to cross the same toll naka in the same direction within 5 minutes of each other.

If it's any consolation, some of us are super-super humans on whose wallets toll got deducted even without visiting the plaza - mine at the peak of the lock down when the car had not even moved out for months.

So I do feel the anguish.

But it's a technology issue rather than a scam. It's bad either way - just that calling it scam attributes a motive to human beings, which does not appear to be the case.

Fortunately there exists a redressal mechanism and more often than not you will get your money back through this. Your first point of contact is your fastag provider and if it's paytm (like mine was) it's a hopeless situation. They will do NOTHING whatsoever on this. An NHAI complaint would usually solve the matter in about a month.

Please don't think of ignoring because the amount is small. Only if NHAI sees volume of such cases growing some systemic change will trigger (that's a hope, but there is not even hope if people don't file complaints).

There was a news article shared on some thread before that Pune police had encouraged filing of cyber-crime complaint in such cases. But I think that is unnecessary since NHAI would usually solve this anyway.

[jeganatu]

Long before I got double entry and amount got deducted twice. I logged into icici fast tag and it had some redresssal system to report such error. I got my money credited back to system in a few days.
Luckily I had noticed 2 sms of same toll and I realized I had been debited twice .

The problem here is, if we don't notice sms or email, we may not realize we have been charged twice. This applies to any of our online payments when our first try gets stuck after otp.

[lokesharo]

This happened to me with Airtel fast tag in Nov'21. Money was deducted twice on some toll Plaza in Uttrakhand while I was sitting at home.
I raised a request with Airtel and after many follow-ups, the money was reverted back to my account.

[arun_josie]

I am not sure about Paytm but ICICI refunds incorrect deductions. But you will have to raise a ticket within 30 or 40 days from the deduction date.

Also, it is better to verify your Fastag transactions every few days for any incorrect deductions. If any, raise a ticket immediately.

Some of the incorrect deductions that I have seen are,
1. Duplicate deduction with same time stamp.
2. Duplicate deduction with different time stamp.
3. Mismatch of car number Vs the car number mentioned in Fastag.

[condor]

Couple of things to do:

1. Search for similar previous discussions here on TBHP. This isnt the first time that the double/excess/erroneous deductions have happened. You will get quite a few inputs in the earlier discussions.

2. Raise a dispute with your Fastag provider.

[electro-monk]

I had visited Forum Shantiniketan mall and had paid the parking amount in cash. Later I got SMS of Fastag deduction.
It was a matter of Rs 50 only, but i wanted to see if there's a process for disputes - I called their helpline who told me to send mail
(etc.management@axisbank.com for Axisbank) with the RC copy (I didn't even have the parking receipt) and SMS screenshot.

It took 1 month but it got refunded.

[AKSarkar1]

This is fairly common and happens every once in a while, emailing Paytm was the right step and all that is required. You should receive a response from them soon enough and they are generally quite understanding. It is evident by your case that it is not possible to cross the toll twice in the specified timeframe and I am sure that this will be understood by PayTM.

You also did the right thing by not barging in toll office. The toll collection is automated and even if they did want to refund you the money they will not be able to do. Just because a few headless chickens barge in to argue doesn't mean that they will be successful.

[kosjam]

A friend of mine works for a Bank Fasttag company and I was discussing corruption at Toll Nakas. His opinions were very insightful.

While the digitization has lead to quite a bit of reduction of corrupt practices, the human brain immediately starts trying to find loopholes which may have been intentional or even unintentional.

In the case mentioned above, there is a provision at the toll booth operator level to capture the RFID and number plate details of the vehicle and withhold the processing, and charging the toll from the driver saying that his fasttag is not working, presenting him with a spurious toll receipt and processing the captured data after the vehicle has passed, to pocket the cash paid by the driver.

In the case of the OP, double dipping is common, as the fastag server sees this double deduction but considers it as a single transaction, due to replication delay error correction built into the software, but the money is deducted twice. Now as earlier posters have commented, if one does not keep track of the deductions, this money is conveniently pocketed by the middleman, i.e. the toll operator.

There are half a dozen more types of frauds that are carried out by such toll booth operators, and in my friend's experience, frauds are more prevalent in Maharashtra than any of the adjoining states...

[autobahnjpr]

Originally Posted by DrCar

I would like to share my experience on how I got scammed at a toll naka

This can happen once in a while. Sometimes the technical request response mechanism goes out of sync and the same request is fired twice, while the previous request itself was successfully completed.
You just need to contact your fastag provide and then lodge a complaint. They will check and refund the money. This is not a sign of corruption but a technology issue. Just raise a service ticket/complaint.
I have faced similar issues after which I lodged the request for reversal and got the money refunded in my fastag wallet.

Originally Posted by kosjam

A friend of mine works for a Bank Fasttag company and I was discussing corruption at Toll Nakas. His opinions were very insightful.
....

I would like to share a positive experience of manual entry. I took fastag when it was initially launched in 2017. That time, the tag was narrower and had different bar code. Later new, updated fastag which was broader and had different codes was launched. Till last month, I faced no issue with the older fastag on any of the national highways in multiple states. However, last month when I was travelling on Yamuna Expressway, the RFID reader at toll refused to read my fastag. My fastag had good balance and I told the operator that I have faced no issue so far and showed him the fastag balance on my phone.

Earlier Yamuna expressway was not fastag compliant and toll was collected manually. When they implemented fastag, they designed with the new tags and thus older tags were not compliant. The automatic boom barrier would not open with older tags. There are 3 tolls between Noida and Agra and on all the 3 tolls, the operator was kind enough to note down the details and manually enter the same so that money got deducted from my fastag account while he allowed me pass through.

Later while returning back, at the first toll plazas I got the newer version tag as replacement and got my balance from old tag transferred to the new tag and the entire thing took just 5 mins. This is the level of convenience we get which we sometimes take for granted.

[sandeepsc]

I have also a PayTM fastag and had faced somewhat similar incident earlier. I was on my way to Nashik and toll plaza near Bhiwandi was too crowded. So they opened the two lanes from opposite direction i.e. towards Mumbai for cars going to Nashik. They used hand held scanners to scan the tag. Money got deducted and this toll is valid at Ghoti Toll plaza also. However, upon reaching Ghoti toll near Nashik again money got deducted assuming money was not deducted at Bhiwandi toll plaza. I raised the complaint with PayTM for double deduction of money and within a month I got my refund in account. There are some technical glitches like this where no one has control. So raise your complaint and you will also get refund after few days.

[aniams]

I face such kind of incorrect deductions very frequently in Hyderabad ORR.
The issue is with the operator sitting at the toll booth. At times the fast tag reader doesn't read our tag for some weird reason. Ideally the guy sitting at the booth will realize that and he should be using the manual devise to read the tag for the gates to open. Instead he just opens the gate and we take the exit. So you will have an entry but no exit in the ORR and the system takes the maximum fare of the last exit of ORR.
This happens very frequently for me. I use a paytm tag and raise a dispute with the details of entry and exit plaza. I used to get a refund in couple of weeks.

The only challenge is one should keep monitoring the messages if you are a frequent commuter in such roads.

TIP - While you pass any toll plaza in Hyderabad ORR with a fasttag, watch out for the led display on your right to see while opening the gates whether it displays "national fasttag". If it is displayed, your tag is read and if not the probability of tag not been read is more and the gates are opened manually by the operator.