Those travel agents, if real and it's not really an unbelievable scenario, were basically malicious scumfucks even though she should've done her research too. Nobody should recommend a female travelling alone in India, you might as well send her naked and alone to Afghanistan or into bear country covered in deer blood and blueberries. These are just unfortunate truths about the world so you don't end up like those idiot hippies raped and dying in agony for trying to befriend the taliban. There's plenty of places women can travel solo and be exceedingly safe even without self defense, but it isn't India and hopefully she learned her lesson. I doubt she's going to get that money back, she was naive and stupid to trust them and it's lucky nothing worse happened.