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Ex employees caught for ticket fraud

Gayatri Vijaykumar - Bengaluru

Two ex- employees of Via, a Bangalore-based travel services portal have recently been caught in a case of online ticket booking fraud. The ex-employees had been hacking into the IDs of various travel agencies and issuing tickets. The issue came to light when Yatra and Akbar Travels Online found that tickets were being issued without any invoice. "When we sign up with an airline we integrate with the airline through an Application Programming Interface (API) and each agent is given a unique ID with which the booking is made. Through some sources from Indigo, the airline in question here, the ex- employees of Via have got access to these IDs and have made false bookings," explained Vijay Kesavan, CEO Akbar Travels Online.

Rajat, one of the ex-employees involved in the scam has already been caught by the Bangalore police, however the police are on the look out for Nishant Shetty, the second ex-employee. "A lot of agents are losing money because of such fraud cases. The police have identified two involved in the scam, however it could be a big racket with many more involved," Kesavan said.

When contacted, Deepak Chhabra, human resources Head for Via said, "When the incident took place, Nishant Shetty was not working with us. The services of Rajat have already been terminated. We have been co-operating with the police and have been providing all documents requested by them."