In November 2011, Aparna Goel started getting calls from a soft-spoken woman offering to sell a flat in a prime locality in Noida, just outside Delhi. The woman said she worked for a major construction company based in Noida. Goel, a divorcee who lived alone in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district, wanted to buy property in Noida and move to the city in search of better opportunities as a school teacher. But the amount quoted to her by the woman—Rs. 55 lakh for a two bedroom-hall-