Sudha Swarnkar, a professional yoga teacher claims to have lost the whopping sum in only 20 minutes. After realizing she has been duped, the victim lodged a complaint to her local cybercrime unit of Lucknow police, with Ashiana police station.

Sudha’s father, Ghanshyam Swarnkar, who works at the information department condemned the police for their delay in investigation, emphasizing the fraudster managed to defraud the money in just 20 minutes with only five transactions, but the police is yet to take action on the matter even after one week since the incident.

Sharing details of the online fraud, Mr. Ghanshyam says that on July 15 his daughter was approached by the fraudster over the phone, claiming to be Pankaj Kumar Pandey, a Border Security Force (BSF) personnel. The ‘BSF personnel’ offered her a role in the two-month-long yoga camp that will be sponsored by BSF in the Lucknow Cantonment area.

After giving more details on the yoga camp to build the victim’s trust, the fraudster asked her to deposit the fees that must be paid as a ‘hiring request’ through the Paytm account linked to her bank account. He claimed that the scammer sent her a Paytm request asking her to complete a Rs 2 transaction and pay the associated fees.

He further noted that the Paytm account showed the username as ‘Bitoli Devi,’ and when it seemed the money was debited, the transaction failed. Following this, at the request of the fraudsters, the victim repeated the transaction process again and again. By the time she realized what was going on, an amount of Rs 94,998 was already debited from her account through the five transactions that she made.

According to Mr. Ghanshyam, the phone number of the fraudster is still active, with him making calls to the victim actively. However, the police did not react to the complaint while confirming that the investigation on the matter is ongoing.