A fraudulent body called "Youth Khelo India Federation" used government logos to charge athletes $825 each for a fake tournament in Thailand — and it took a suspicious 16-year-old taekwondo player to expose what the entire Sports Ministry missed.
In what may be India's most efficient privatization of government incompetence, a fake organization calling itself the "Youth Khelo India Federation" managed to dupe thousands of athletes by slapping government logos on a website and charging $825 per head for a nonexistent international tournament in Thailand. The scam ran so smoothly it put actual government schemes to shame — complete with mascots, brochures, and an air of official legitimacy that fooled everyone except a 16-year-old taekwondo player from who noticed the Winter Games mascot had been copy-pasted onto the brochure. She did what the Sports Ministry, the Sports Authority of India, and the Indian Olympic Association apparently could not: a basic Google search. The Ministry has now promised to file an FIR, presumably after first verifying that they themselves are, in fact, a real government body.