An alleged fraudster who boasted about stealing money from unsuspecting, hardworking Australians has gone into hiding ahead of a television expose on his deeds.
As recently as this week, Karan Mishra was flaunting his wealth on Instagram and Facebook, posting global vacations and standing in front of fancy cars while dressed in fashionable attire.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail in 2021, scam fighter Jim Browning first exposed Mishra, revealing that he was tracking the 29-year-old after learning he ripped off vulnerable retirees in the UK.
When questioned by the Mail outside his family home in Behala, a middle-class neighborhood of Kolkata, India, Mishra flatly refuted all claims, calling them “complete bulls**t.”
He claimed that his only work was helping his father run stationery shops in India.
Karan Mishra was flaunting his wealth on Instagram and Facebook – sharing global trips and posing in front of luxury cars while draped in designer clothes – as recently as this week
But it appears he has since set his sights on Australian targets. Mishra wiped his social media clean of his extravagant lifestyle just hours ahead of a segment on his exploits on 7News Spotlight.
It’s alleged phone recordings – captured after Mr Browning hacked into Mishra’s phone call centre in India – reveal Mishra to be an unapologetic thief.
‘There is nothing called humble — poor people are humble people,’ Mishra is alleged to have told a friend in the tapped phone call.
‘Once you get $100,000 in your pocket, the first thing in your mind is how to make $200,000; a million; a billion.
‘I need to purchase a private jet but I need some (more) money. I need to buy a private jet.’
In the same conversation, Mishra allegedly boasted of bedding multiple women each night and drinking Blue Label Johnny Walker whiskey worth $750.
This is despite appearing to be in a committed relationship since 2016, according to his social media.
Mishra is accused of defrauding vulnerable Australians and pocketing over $1 million from a dementia patient in the United Kingdom.
Thomas Mulligan, 85, a retired British NHS surgeon, was one of the victims, receiving a landline phone call from an Amazon cyber security employee urging him to assist in the fight against bad hackers.
He had no idea he was talking to the very criminals he was attempting to ‘trap,’ and that they were ready to drain his bank account.
Because the scammers already had his bank account information, the widower was lulled into a false feeling of security. They most likely purchased them from hackers on the internet.