Munchhausen BY PROXY Syndrome, is when a mother breaks her child's bones, or harms them in some way and then makes a big fuss over how her poor child is ill, was hurt in an accident, claims the child is very ill, but she has, in reality, fed them low doses of poison, or some such thing, to make them ill. It's all for attention, FOR THE MOTHER.
It was named for a character in a book, which was later a radio show; the Baron von Munchhausen. At the end of the show, after a wild story, some would tell him that all of that was implausible, crazy, couldn't have happened that way and the Bron would reply :"Vas you der Scharlie?".
Many decades later, an horridly bad movie was made about the Barron.
So, what you're thinking of has a different name, but outside of crazy or delusional, I don't know what to call it.
My understanding is that Munchhausen's Syndrome is when a person feigns symptoms themselves, but M's Syndrome by Proxy is when they do something to make a child (or other dependent individual) experience symptoms to get sympathy for the person with the syndrome. The classic example of M's by proxy is a mother who poisons her child to make the child appear sick so the mother gets sympathy. M's by proxy is a special case of M's Syndrome Proper. Still, I think M's Syndrome Proper applies only to feigned illnesses. There must be some name for feigning being a victim of a crime for sympathy. I will try to consult the DSM-IV tomorrow to see if I can find out what it might be called.