India: Cyber criminal accesses police database, cons 945 families who reported their kids missing

In a shocking cyber crime that took place in India's Uttar Pradesh, a cyber criminal targeted grieving parents with missing children, promising them to

The man behind these revolting crimes has been identified as a 28-year-old tech graduate. As per reports, he conned almost 950 people.

A long con

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As per an NDTV report, the computer graduate would prey on grieving families, conning them out of small amounts to avoid triggering suspicions.

The case came to light last month, on November 15, when the Indian capital Delhi's Wazirabad police station received a complaint. A father reported that his daughter had gone missing. A report was registered and the missing child's details were uploaded to the missing portal of the Delhi police.

A few days later, the worried family received a call that raised their hopes: a man told them that their daughter had been found but that they need to transfer ₹8,000 (around $96) to help get her back. The family, using a QR code shared with them, transferred the money, awaiting their child's return. However, they never heard back from the man. They filed a complaint which led to the conman being traced.

The man behind the con

Identified as Shyamsundar Chauhan from Mau in Uttar Pradesh, the cyber conman is a 28-year-old graduate in Computer Applications.

Preying on distressed families, he would ask for small amounts of money ranging from ₹2,000 to ₹40,000 ($24 to $480). To pick his victims, he would scour police databases on missing people. This includes the ZIPNet (Zonal Integrated Police Network).

Talking to the press, Manoj Kumar Meena, Deputy Commissioner of Police, North Delhi revealed that in the last few days they "received multiple written and verbal complaints from parents in the North Delhi district that their missing child had been found, and they had paid money to police personnel, but they got no response after that, or were not reunited with their child."

"During our investigation, we found out about a gang that would retrieve the numbers of parents of missing children from publicly available databases and call them up."

The Deputy Commissioner said that the accused would often pose as a police officer and ask for money to facilitate the child's travel from another city.

"He would say the child has been recovered and ask for a small sum, saying that the child was in other cities, like Dehradun, and the money was needed to get them back. The parents would transfer the amount. One such incident took place under the Wazirabad police station, where ₹8,000 was taken from a family to get their daughter back."

As per the police, the predatory conman was arrested from Mau, Uttar Pradesh. Their investigation revealed that he had cheated 41 people from North Delhi and 904 people from Delhi-NCR.

(With inputs from agencies)