Yoga trainer in UP falls victim to online fraud, losing Rs 94,998 in just 20 minutes

A professional Yoga trainer lost Rs 94,998 from her account in just 20 minutes. She filed a complaint with the Ashiana police station and approached the cybercrime unit of Lucknow police for assistance.

Lucknow: A professional Yoga trainer lost a sum of Rs 94,998 from her account in 20 minutes. The victim approached the cybercrime unit of Lucknow police and lodged a complaint with Ashiana police station.

The victim, Sudha Swarnkar’s father, Ghanshyam Swarnkar, an information department employee, said that the fraudster deducted the amount in five transactions in just 20 minutes, but the police are yet to react even after a week.

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He said that his daughter was approached by a person over the phone, introducing himself as Border Security Force (BSF) personnel Pankaj Kumar Pandey on July 15 and offered to hire her for a two-month long yoga camp to be organised by BSF in the Lucknow Cantonment area.

He said Pandey asked her to deposit fees for a hiring request through the Paytm account linked to her bank account. He said that the fraudster sent her a Paytm request for Rs 2 transaction and asked to pay the fees on it.

He said this Paytm account showed in the name of Bitoli Devi, and the transaction failed. She tried making transactions through requests sent by the fraudsters again and again. By the time, she realised, an amount of Rs 94,998 had been debited from her account in five transactions.

He said the online fraudster’s mobile phone number is still active and he is still calling again and again but the police have not reacted to the complaint yet.

The Ashiana police, meanwhile, said the investigation in the matter is going on.