Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Evolution of Cyber Crimes ...........................................................................
Chapter 2 Financial Crimes ............................................................................................
Chapter 3 Cyber Pornography .......................................................................................
Chapter 4 Sale of Illegal Articles ....................................................................................
Chapter 5 Online Gambling ..........................................................................................
Chapter 6 Intellectual Property Crimes .......................................................................
Chapter 7 Email Spoofing .............................................................................................
Chapter 8 Forgery ..........................................................................................................
Chapter 9 Cyber Defamation ........................................................................................
Chapter 10 Cyber Stalking ............................................................................................
Chapter 1 Evolution of Cyber Crimes
The first recorded cyber crime took place in the year 1820! That is not
surprising considering the fact that the abacus, which is thought to be the
earliest form of a computer, has been around since 3500 B.C. in India,
Japan and China. The era of modern computers, however, began with the
analytical engine of Charles Babbage.
In 1820, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, a textile manufacturer in France,
produced the loom. This device allowed the repetition of a series of steps
in the weaving of special fabrics. This resulted in a fear amongst
Jacquard's employees that their traditional employment and livelihood
were being threatened. They committed acts of sabotage to discourage
Jacquard from further use of the new technology. This is the first
recorded cyber crime!
Today, computers have come a long way with neural networks and
nanocomputing promising to turn every atom in a glass of water into a
computer capable of performing a billion operations per second. In a day
and age when everything from microwave ovens and refrigerators to
nuclear power plants are being run on computers, cyber crime has
assumed rather sinister implications.
Cyber crime can involve criminal activities that are traditional in nature,
such as theft, fraud, forgery, defamation and mischief. The abuse of
computers has also given birth to a gamut of new age crimes such as
hacking, web defacement, cyber stalking, web jacking etc.
A simple yet sturdy definition of cyber crime would be:
“unlawful acts wherein the computer is either a tool or a target or
both”.
The term computer used in this definition does not only mean the
conventional desktop or laptop computer. It includes Personal Digital
Assistants (PDA), cell phones, sophisticated watches, cars and a host of
gadgets.
Chapter 2 Financial Crimes
Money is the most common motive behind all crime. The same is also true
for cyber crime.
Globally it is being observed that more and more cyber crimes are being
committed for financial motives rather than for “revenge” or for “fun”.
With the tremendous increase in the use of internet and mobile banking,
online share trading, dematerialization of shares and securities, this trend
is likely to increase unabated.
Financial crimes include cyber cheating, credit card frauds, money
laundering, hacking into bank servers, computer manipulation, accounting
scams etc.
Illustration 1
Punjab National Bank in India was cheated to the tune of Rs. 13.9 million
through false debits and credits in computerized accounts.
Illustration 2
Rs. 2,50,000 were misappropriated from Bank of Baroda in India through
falsification of computerized bank accounts.
Illustration 3
The Hyderabad police in India arrested an unemployed computer operator
and his friend, a steward in a prominent five-star hotel, for stealing and
misusing credit card numbers belonging to hotel customers.
The steward noted down the various details of the credit cards, which were
handed by clients of the hotel for paying their bills. Then, he passed all the
details to his computer operator friend who used the details to make online
purchases on various websites.
Chapter 3 Cyber Pornography
Cyber pornography is believed to be one of the largest businesses on the
Internet today. The millions of pornographic websites that flourish on the
Internet are testimony to this.
While pornography per se is not illegal in many countries, child
pornography is strictly illegal in most nations today.
Cyber pornography covers pornographic websites, pornographic
magazines produced using computers (to publish and print the material)
and the Internet (to download and transmit pornographic pictures, photos,
writings etc).
Illustration 1
A school student from Delhi (India), who was regularly teased for having a
pockmarked face, used a free hosting provider to create www.amazinggents.
8m.net.
He regularly uploaded “morphed” photographs of teachers and girls from
his school onto the website. He was arrested when the father of one of the
victims reported the case to the police.
Illustration 2
The CEO of online auction website bazee.com (a part of the ebay group)
was arrested by the Delhi police for violating India’s strict laws on cyber
pornography.
An engineering student was using the bazee website to sell a video
depicting two school students having sexual intercourse. Bazee.com was
held liable for distributing porn and hence the CEO was arrested.
Illustration 3
The CEO of a software company in Pune (India) was arrested for sending
highly obscene emails to a former employee.
Chapter 4 Sale of Illegal Articles
It is becoming increasingly common to find cases where sale of illegal
articles such as narcotics drugs, weapons, wildlife etc. is being facilitated
by the Internet.
Information about the availability of the products for sale is being posted on
auction websites, bulletin boards etc. It is practically impossible to control
or prevent a criminal from setting up a website to transact in illegal articles.
Additionally, there are several online payment gateways that can transfer
money around the world at the click of a button. The Internet has also
created a marketplace for the sale of unapproved drugs, prescription drugs
dispensed without a valid prescription, or products marketed with
fraudulent health claims.
Many sites focus on selling prescription drugs and are referred to by some
as “Internet pharmacies.” These sites offer for sale either approved
prescription drug products, or in some cases, unapproved, illegal versions
of prescription drugs.
This poses a serious potential threat to the health and safety of patients.
The broad reach, relative anonymity, and ease of creating new or
removing old websites, poses great challenges for law enforcement
officials.
Illustration
In March 2007, the Pune rural police cracked down on an illegal rave party
and arrested hundreds of illegal drug users.
The social networking site Orkut.com is believed to be one of the modes of
communication for gathering people for the illegal “drug” party.
Chapter 5 Online Gambling
There are thousands of websites that offer online gambling. The special
issue with online gambling is that it is legalised in several countries.
So legally the owners of these websites are safe in their home countries.
The legal issues arise when a person residing in a foreign country like
India (where such websites are illegal) gambles on such a website.
Illustration
The website ladbrokes.com permits users to gamble on a variety of
sports such as cricket, football, tennis, golf, motor racing, ice hockey,
basketball, baseball, darts, snooker, boxing, athletics, rugby, volleyball,
motor cycling etc.
Additionally it also features an online casino. The website has no technical
measures in place to prohibit residents of certain countries (where online
gambling is illegal) from betting at their website.
Chapter 6 Intellectual Property Crimes
These include software piracy, copyright infringement, trademark
violations, theft of computer source code etc.
Illustration 1
A software professional from Bangalore (India) was booked for stealing
the source code of a product being developed by his employers.
He started his own company and allegedly used the stolen source code to
launch a new software product.
Illustration 2
In 2003, a computer user in China obtained the source code of a popular
game LineageII from an unprotected website.
This proprietary code was then sold to several people in 2004.
One of those people set up a website, www.l2extreme.com, to offer the
“Lineage” game at a discount.
Despite legal warnings from the South Korean company that owned the
Lineage source code, the suspect did not shut down the site. He rented
powerful servers - enough to accommodate 4,000 simultaneous gamers -
and solicited donations from users to help defray the costs.
The loss in potential revenues for the South Korean company was
estimated at $750,000 a month. The US FBI arrested the suspect and the
website was shut down.
Chapter 7 Email Spoofing
A spoofed email is one that appears to originate from one source but
actually has been sent from another source e.g Pooja has an e-mail
address pooja@asianlaws.org.
Her ex-boyfriend, Sameer spoofs her e-mail and sends obscene messages
to all her acquaintances. Since the e-mails appear to have originated from
Pooja, her friends may take offence and relationships may be spoiled for
life.
Illustration 1
In an American case, a teenager made millions of dollars by spreading
false information about certain companies whose shares he had short sold.
This misinformation was spread by sending spoofed emails, purportedly
from news agencies like Reuters, to share brokers and investors who were
informed that the companies were doing very badly.
Even after the truth came out the values of the shares did not go back to
the earlier levels and thousands of investors lost a lot of money.
Illustration 2
A branch of the erstwhile Global Trust Bank in India experienced a run on
the bank. Numerous customers decided to withdraw all their money and
close their accounts.
An investigation revealed that someone had sent out spoofed emails to
many of the bank’s customers stating that the bank was in very bad shape
financially and could close operations at any time.
The spoofed email appeared to have originated from the bank itself.
Chapter 8 Forgery
Counterfeit currency notes, postage and revenue stamps, mark sheets,
academic certificates etc are made by criminals using sophisticated
computers, printers and scanners.
Illustration 1
In October 1995, Economic Offences Wing of Crime Branch, Mumbai
(India), seized over 22,000 counterfeit share certificates of eight reputed
companies worth Rs. 34.47 crores.
These were allegedly prepared using Desk Top Publishing Systems.
Illustration 2
Abdul Kareem Telgi, along with several others, was convicted in India on
several counts of counterfeiting stamp papers and postage stamps totalling
several billion rupees.
Chapter 9 Cyber Defamation
This occurs when defamation takes place with the help of computers and
/ or the Internet. e.g. Sameer publishes defamatory matter about Pooja on
a website or sends e-mails containing defamatory information to Pooja’s
friends.
Illustration 1
Abhishek, a teenaged student was arrested by the Thane police in India
following a girl’s complaint about tarnishing her image in the social
networking site Orkut.
Abhishek had allegedly created a fake account in the name of the girl with
her mobile number posted on the profile. The profile had been sketched in
such a way that it drew lewd comments from many who visited her profile.
The Thane Cyber Cell tracked down Abhishek from the false e-mail id that
he had created to open up the account.
Illustration 2
The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court issued a notice to
Google.com following a public interest litigation initiated by a young lawyer.
The lawyer took exception to a community called ‘We hate India’, owned
by someone who identified himself as Miroslav Stankovic.
The community featured a picture of the Indian flag being burnt.
Illustration 3
Unidentified persons posted obscene photographs and contact details of a
Delhi school girl. Suggestive names like ’sex teacher’ were posted on the
profile. The matter came to light after the girl’s family started receiving
vulgar calls referring to Orkut.
Chapter 10 Cyber Stalking
Cyber stalking refers to the use of the Internet, e-mail, or other electronic
communications devices to stalk another person.
Stalking generally involves harassing or threatening behaviour that an
individual engages in repeatedly, such as following a person, appearing at
a person's home or place of business, making harassing phone calls,
leaving written messages or objects, or vandalizing a person's property.
Most stalking laws require that the perpetrator make a credible threat of
violence against the victim; others include threats against the victim's
immediate family.
Illustration 1
In the first successful prosecution under the California (USA) cyber stalking
law, prosecutors obtained a guilty plea from a 50-year-old former security
guard who used the Internet to solicit the rape of a woman who rejected
his romantic advances.
He terrorized the 28-year-old victim by impersonating her in various
Internet chat rooms and online bulletin boards, where he posted, along
with her telephone number and address, messages that she fantasized
about being raped. On at least six occasions, sometimes in the middle of
the night, men knocked on the woman's door saying they wanted to rape
her.
Illustration 2
An honours graduate from the University of San Diego in USA terrorized
five female university students over the Internet for more than a year. The
victims received hundreds of violent and threatening e-mails, sometimes
receiving four or five messages a day. The student, who pleaded guilty,
told the police that he had committed the crimes because he thought the
women were laughing at him and causing others to ridicule him.
In reality, the victims had never met him.
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