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About this tool
Spot fake e-challan SMS and APK links, validate a registration number offline and check the demanded fine against Motor Vehicles Act penalties.
The fake traffic challan scam is a smishing campaign in which an SMS or WhatsApp message impersonates an e-challan notice and pushes the reader either to install an Android package file or to pay a fine into a private UPI ID. This explainer breaks the campaign into seven stages, scores the message you received against a weighted twelve-point checklist, validates the registration number it quotes against the real Indian format including the Bharat (BH) series, and totals the statutory penalty under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 as amended in 2019 so you can see how the demanded amount compares.
Open Fake Traffic Challan Scam Explainer on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Add your input to the workspace.
Adjust the options until the result looks right.
Copy or download the output and put it to work.
Parses the state code, RTO number, series and serial without sending your registration anywhere.
Fourteen offences with their Motor Vehicles Act section and both first and repeat-offence amounts.
An APK download, a non-gov.in link and a UPI demand each rule out a genuine challan on their own.
Ignore the link entirely and look the challan up yourself at echallan.parivahan.gov.in using your vehicle number, driving licence number or the challan number. A genuine e-challan appears there with the offence, location, date and a photograph. If nothing is listed against your vehicle, no challan was issued.
Because the APK is the attack. Installing it grants an app that requests SMS, notification and accessibility permissions, which lets it read one-time passwords and authorise transactions or forward the same message to your contacts. No transport department distributes an app through an SMS link — mParivahan is published on Google Play and the App Store only.
Under the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, riding without a helmet carries 1,000 rupees plus a three-month licence disqualification under Section 194D, and driving without a valid pollution under control certificate carries 10,000 rupees under Section 190(2). These are the central figures; states set their own compounding amounts under Section 200, so the amount charged locally can differ.
Put the phone in aeroplane mode, uninstall the app, and then change your net banking, UPI and email passwords from a different, clean device rather than the affected phone. Call your bank to freeze transactions, report at cybercrime.gov.in or on helpline 1930, and consider a factory reset. Reporting a fraudulent debit quickly is what makes a beneficiary-account freeze possible.