A 35-year-old man, in Mumbai for his son's cancer treatment, lost over R90,000 to online fraud on Tuesday while waiting for a chemotherapy cycle to get over. Sanket Kumar Sharma received texts and repeated calls from fraudsters telling him that his Paytm account has been blocked due to incomplete KYC information. A flustered Sharma ended up sharing vital information and losing his money.

Residents of Lucknow, Sharma and his wife Suman had rushed their son Aaweg to Mumbai in October 2018 after the 11-year-old was diagnosed with blood cancer. Since then, Sharma and Aaweg have been living in a Parel dharamshala. "I was at the dharamshala on Tuesday when I received a text message saying KYC details should be updated to keep my Paytm account active. I had to leave for the chemotherapy cycle soon so I ignored the message, got ready and left for the hospital," said Sharma.