The UT Police have successfully cracked a fake traffic challan SMS scam, arresting two individuals from Banda district, Uttar Pradesh. The accused have been identified as Shalender Kumar and Mahender Singh, both aged 19.
The case was registered on 20 January after a complaint from the DSP (Traffic), who had received a suspicious SMS on 13 January. The message falsely claimed that a traffic violation had been detected via camera surveillance and demanded immediate payment through a fraudulent web link. Verification confirmed that the alert did not originate from the official Chandigarh Traffic Police system.
Following this, multiple citizens reported receiving similar fake messages, pointing to a coordinated attempt to defraud people.
Investigations, including technical analysis and KYC verification, traced the source of the fraudulent SMS messages to Banda. A local police team promptly traveled to Uttar Pradesh and arrested the accused on 26 January, recovering the fake challan messages from their mobile phones. Authorities are continuing to probe the extent of the scam and potential accomplices.