File photo of the website of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China [Photo: Agencies]

People across China haven't recovered from previous telecom fraud cases that took several young lives away, as new reports reveal yet another victim. A missing college student was finally found by his family, but sorrowfully, not alive.

The deceased is a sophomore surnamed Duan from southwest China's Yunnan Province, and he had been studying in a university in northeast China's Changchun City. He was reported missing on September 2nd after losing 5,000 yuan (around 750 US dollars) of his tuition fees in a telecom scam.

According to Duan's girlfriend, he received a message with a link claiming to charge tuition fees on August 25. The link led him to a website where he remitted the "school fees for the new semester".

Duan was depressed ever since according to his girlfriend, and felt guilty about losing money that his rural farm based family worked so hard to earn.

Duan's girlfriend posted a search notice because he didn't answer any calls or reply to messages since the afternoon of September 2nd. Late on September 6th, Duan's family found his body.

The security of personal information has once again become a focal issue, since fraud cases keep occurring, one after another.

How was our information leaked to the fraudsters? Or who is leaking our personal information?

Statistics show that over the past six years, the personal information of over 160 million people in Beijing has been leaked.

Express delivery, online shopping, real estate agencies, training agencies and even public security departments are sources of the leaks.

Industries such as healthcare products, insurance, financial consultation and real estate agents, are the main clients for this information.

According to courts in Beijing, in all the 67 relevant cases accepted between 2013 and 2016, the cheapest piece of information sold for less than 0.005 yuan, while the most expensive ones sell at 5.7 yuan. The most information leaked in one case was over 130 pieces.

A lawyer named Chen Xiaowen suggests that current criminal laws on the infringement of personal information, are still imperfect and the penalties can be light.

Chen says financial, telecommunication, transportation, educational, medical departments, and agencies hold a mass of accurate information on citizens, and they should take more responsibilities to protect the security of information. Punishment towards these departments and agencies should also be stricter if information has been found to have been leaked.