Payment Safety

How money moves on a booking with us

Every booking follows the same sequence, and knowing it is the simplest protection there is: a request that skips a step, or asks for payment before the step that normally comes first, is the tell.

• You enquire, by phone, WhatsApp or the form on this site.
• We send a written quotation, with a reference number, the vehicle and route it applies to, the fare, and the GST line.
• You accept it, in writing, on the same channel the quotation reached you on.
• Where an advance applies, it goes to the account named on that quotation, and only that account.
• Your booking is confirmed.
• The balance is settled, by the method and at the point set out on your quotation.
• The trip runs.
• We issue the GST invoice and a receipt.

The full detail of how an advance and a balance are worked out, and what happens if a trip changes after payment, is at /payment-terms. This page is about telling a genuine step in that sequence from a fraudulent one, not about restating the terms.

Our only collection channel

We collect payment into one account or UPI ID, registered in the name of Om Taxi Service. It is stated on your own quotation or your own invoice, and it is not published anywhere else, not on this website, not in a message sent ahead of a document, not read out on a call.

We never ask you to pay into a personal account. We never ask you to pay a number given to you over a call with nothing in writing behind it. The only account we ever ask you to pay is the one named on a quotation or invoice addressed to you, in the name of Om Taxi Service.

If a payment request reaches you by any other route, a number in a message with no quotation behind it, a name that is close to ours but not exact, a request to pay "to hold the account", it is not a step in the sequence above, and it is not from us.

What a genuine quotation looks like

A quotation from us states our name, a reference number, the vehicle and the route or duty it applies to, the fare broken down rather than a single figure, the GST line at the rate set out on /legal/gst-and-invoicing, and how long the fare stays valid for.

A document missing a reference number, or carrying a fare with no GST line and no explanation of why, is not one of ours in the form we issue it.

What a genuine invoice looks like

An invoice from us carries our registered name and address, a consecutive invoice number, your name, the taxable value, the GST charged, and whether it is payable by us or, for a body-corporate client, by you under reverse charge. Everything a genuine invoice carries, and why each part of it is there, is set out in full at /legal/gst-and-invoicing.

If you are not sure a quotation or invoice is genuinely ours

Call +91 99966 69190 and quote the reference number on the document. We can tell you straightaway whether it is genuinely ours. This is the one check that always works, whatever the document is and whoever sent it, and it costs you nothing but the call.

The cash ceiling

This is a limit the law places on us, not a limit on how you may choose to pay below it. It exists to stop a large cash payment moving outside any record at all, and the penalty for breaking it falls on us as the recipient, not on you.

We cannot accept ₹2,00,000 or more in cash from one person in a day, in a single transaction, or across transactions relating to one booking or occasion, under section 269ST of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Payment links and payment requests

A genuine payment request from us only ever arrives in writing, on a document already sent to you, from our own office. We do not send a payment link in an unsolicited message, and we do not ask you to pay "to confirm your booking is still valid" or "to keep your slot" outside the sequence set out earlier on this page. A message doing either of those things is not from us, whatever it looks like.

We do not currently take card payments on this website. Payment is by bank transfer or UPI, to the account named on your quotation or invoice.

Refunds

A refund, where one is due, goes back to the same account or card the original payment was made from, never to a different account you provide afterwards. Where a cancellation charge applies and what a refund is due depends on when you cancel, and that schedule is set out in full at /cancellation-refund-policy.

Signs something is wrong

None of these on their own prove a fraud, but any one of them is a reason to stop and call us on the number published on this site before you pay anything.

• Pressure to pay immediately, with no room to check first.
• A request to pay into a "personal account because the company account is under maintenance".
• A discount offered for paying to a different account than the one on your quotation.
• A WhatsApp number that does not match the one published on this site.
• A web address with an extra hyphen, a misspelling, or an unfamiliar extension in place of om-travels.in.
• Any request for an OTP, a CVV, a UPI PIN or a net-banking password.

We never ask for an OTP, a CVV, a UPI PIN or a net-banking password. Not once, not ever, for any reason. No one on our team has any reason to ask you for these, and anyone who does is committing an offence.

If you believe you have been defrauded

Act fast. The steps below are in the order that gives you the best chance of stopping or recovering a payment.

• Call 1930, the national cyber-fraud helpline, straightaway.
• File a complaint at cybercrime.gov.in.
• Call your own bank's fraud line and ask them to block or reverse the transaction if it is still possible.
• Tell us at /trust/report-fraud, with whatever you have, the message, the number, the account it asked you to pay. We use it to support your complaint and to warn other customers.