This situation involves two overlapping legal issues worth separating clearly: the legal status of what you were trying to arrange, and your position as someone who's been defrauded of a significant sum of money. I'll address both honestly, since understanding where you stand legally matters for what you can realistically do next.

On the legal status of escort services: as discussed in an earlier response regarding the law on clients of sex workers, India's Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 doesn't directly criminalise a client privately engaging an adult sex worker, though it does criminalise specific related activities like soliciting in public places, running a brothel, or living off the earnings of prostitution. "Escort services" often operate in a legally ambiguous space, sometimes functioning as genuine companionship services and sometimes as a front for commercial sexual services, and this ambiguity is itself frequently exploited by scammers specifically because they're betting that victims won't report the fraud, given the sensitive and potentially embarrassing nature of what they were trying to arrange.

Now, on the fraud itself: regardless of what you were attempting to book or pay for, being scammed out of money through a fake service, fake booking, or an operator who took payment and never delivered, is squarely and unambiguously a criminal offence under Indian law, specifically cheating under Section 318 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (corresponding to Section 420 IPC), discussed extensively throughout our conversation, which criminalises dishonestly inducing someone to deliver property (including money) through deception, carrying punishment up to seven years imprisonment along with a fine. If this happened online, through a website, app, or messaging platform, this additionally falls under cyber fraud provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000, particularly Section 66D, which specifically criminalises cheating by personation using computer resources, carrying punishment up to three years along with a fine up to one lakh rupees.

If the scam involved you being directed to make a payment through a fraudulent UPI ID, bank transfer, or online payment gateway that was never going to deliver any genuine service, this is a well-recognised and increasingly common pattern of online financial fraud that Indian cyber crime cells actively investigate and pursue, and importantly, the fact that the underlying service you were attempting to book involved an escort service doesn't disqualify you from reporting this fraud or pursuing recovery of your money, since the criminal offence here is the fraud itself, committed against you as the victim, regardless of the nature of the transaction you believed you were entering into.

It's worth being direct about one practical concern you may have: whether reporting this could expose you to any legal consequence for attempting to arrange the service in the first place. As discussed above, simply attempting to engage an adult escort/companion service privately generally doesn't itself constitute a clear-cut criminal offence under the ITPA in the way that, say, soliciting in a public place would, so in most circumstances, your primary legal exposure here is genuinely as the victim of fraud, not as someone facing criminal liability for the underlying attempted transaction. That said, if the platform or arrangement involved something illegal beyond a straightforward companion service, such as any indication of a minor being involved (which would trigger entirely different and extremely serious concerns discussed extensively throughout our conversation regarding POCSO), this would change the picture significantly, but based simply on being scammed for money in the course of trying to arrange an adult service, your position as a fraud victim is the relevant legal framing.

Your practical steps for recovery and reporting: First, immediately report this to your bank or payment provider if you paid via UPI, card, or bank transfer, since prompt reporting (ideally within a few hours to a couple of days) significantly improves the chances of the transaction being frozen or reversed before the scammer withdraws the funds, and banks in India are required to act on fraud reports through the RBI's specific framework for unauthorized/fraudulent transactions. Second, file a complaint on India's National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (cybercrime.gov.in) or call the national cyber crime helpline (1930), which is specifically designed for exactly this kind of financial fraud and has direct coordination with banks and payment gateways to attempt fund recovery quickly. Third, you can also file a police complaint or FIR at your local police station or the nearest cyber crime cell, citing Section 318 BNS and Section 66D of the IT Act, providing all evidence you have, including payment confirmations, chat/communication records with the scammer, and any website or app details.

Given the amount involved (over ₹60,000), this is significant enough to warrant serious pursuit rather than writing it off, and cyber crime cells across India have become considerably more effective in recent years at tracing and freezing funds in exactly these kinds of UPI/digital payment fraud cases, provided the report is filed promptly.

Conclusion: Being scammed for money while attempting to arrange an escort service is fraud under Section 318 BNS and, if conducted online, Section 66D of the IT Act, and your position here is fundamentally as a victim of cheating, not as someone facing criminal exposure for the underlying attempted transaction in most ordinary circumstances, so report this immediately to your bank, the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (cybercrime.gov.in) or helpline 1930, and consider filing a formal police complaint, since prompt action significantly improves your chances of recovering the funds. You can reach out to the team at Aapka Legal Advice for confidential guidance on pursuing this fraud complaint effectively, and this list of Top Criminal Lawyers in India | Aapka Legal Advice can help you find a lawyer experienced in cyber fraud matters if you need formal representation.