It is widely known that the occurrence of cybercrimes is escalating steadily on a daily basis. The rapid growth of the digital era, along with our reliance on virtual platforms, has resulted in the infiltration of thieves and fraudsters who use our data. Consequently, there has been a notable increase in the occurrences of identity theft and cyber fraud. In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the situation, it is crucial to have a thorough comprehension of the definition and many forms of cybercrime, as well as the specific legal regulations associated with it.
Cyberspace refers to a worldwide computer network that enables internet communication. Users can utilise it to exchange information and ideas, engage in interactions and communication, engage in gaming activities, take part in discussions, conduct business, and carry out various other duties. Cyberspace can be defined as the virtual realm created by computers that encompasses the global stage of the internet and web. The concept of "cybercrime" is not explicitly established under the legal framework of India. It is not explicitly specified in either the Information Technology Act of 2000 or the Information Technology Act of 2002. Neither in the Amendment Act of 2008 nor in any other legislation in India. Despite the amendments made by the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008, the Indian Penal Code continues to omit the phrase "cybercrime." Cybercrime is the term used to describe criminal activities that occur through the use of computers and the internet. This includes unauthorised access to someone else's computer system or database, the manipulation or theft of stored or online data, hacking, phishing, cyber warfare, and the dissemination of computer viruses. In other words, any illegal act or violation that is facilitated by the use of a computer can be classified as cybercrime.
Essentially, cybercrime may be categorised into three primary classifications:
1. Cybercrimes such as harassment occur either in cyberspace or as a result of using cyberspace. It can encompass several forms of harassment, such as sexual, racial, religious, or other types.
2. Cyber property crimes encompass activities such as causing damage to computer systems, distributing malicious software, unlawful acquisition of data, and unauthorised possession of data on computers.
3. Government cybercrimes, for instance cyber terrorism
The Mumbai police have arrested two persons after it emerged that over 25 Indians were lured with "high-paying" jobs in Thailand but taken to Laos, where they were forced to commit cyber fraud, an official said on Tuesday. The arrest of agents Jerry Jacob (46), whom police described as the kingpin of the racket, and his associate Godfrey Alvares (39) came on the complaint of one Siddharth Yadav (23). The case, registered on March 23, also names another agent named Sunny. Thane resident Mr Yadav and three others, who too were victims of the job syndicate, had managed to return from Laos with the help of the Indian embassy in the Southeast Asian country.
After two Gurugram residents were duped of nearly ₹ 2 crores by cyberfraudsters, a marketing professional from Chennai on Tuesday said she received a similar scam call claiming her Aadhaar number was used to send drugs to Thailand. In a series of posts on X, Lavanya Mohan detailed the conversation she had with a man impersonating a customer care executive from delivery service FedEx claiming drugs were being transported internationally using her ID.
An executive of a Gurugram-based consulting firm was defrauded of about ₹ 38 lakh by a woman who befriended him through a matrimonial site, police said. The victim was lured into investing in a cryptocurrency named deuncoin and was asked for various other charges, they said. An FIR was registered at Cyber Crime East police station, police said, adding that the accused will be arrested soon.
The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday said it recently arrested a Delhi-based man in connection with a money laundering investigation linked to the alleged duping of common people to the tune of about 5,000 crore through cybercrimes and online gaming. The agency alleged Ashish Kakkar was an "important kingpin of a syndicate involved in generation, layering and siphoning of the proceeds of crime to the tune of ₹ 4,978 crore generated from various cybercrimes and online gaming ongoing all over India during the period 2020-2024." The money laundering case stems from police FIRs registered in Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and some others.
Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police arrested five accused persons who were associated with a trading fraud case and cheated the complainant in the guise of getting high returns by investing in the stock market. The arrested accused have been identified as Swayam Timaniya, Meet Timaniya, Brijesh Patel, Harsh Pandya and Shankar Lal. According to the Hyderabad police, "In November 2023 a complaint was received from victim, a resident of Hyderabad stating that accused person contacted her and insisted on investing in the stock market with 100 per cent highest returns on a company named Unity Stocks and then asked her to deposit the amounts in the different stock market and gaming websites like Dafabet, Unity Exchange, T20 IPL etc. saying that if she invests maximum money and holds it for six months then she can get minimum of 30 per cent returns of the invested amount."
The complainant invested an amount of ₹ 3,16,34,764 into the bank accounts which were provided by the accused.
On February 6, a fraudster posing to be a police officer ``Pradip Sawant" made a WhatsApp call to the victim and informed her that her Aadhar card and two phone numbers were linked to a money laundering case. The caller then handed over the phone to a special ``CBI officer" called Rajesh Mishra who threatened criminal action against her. The fake identity cards of ``Sawant" and "Mishra" were sent to her on WhatsApp.
The affected woman recounted that Mishra told her that her bank account and Aadhaar card numbers had been sold in China and Rs 6.8 crore had been laundered. When she denied any involvement, Mishra told her that since she was a senior citizen, he wouldn't call her to the police station. After that, Mishra sent her a letter on WhatsApp, asking her to transfer money to a 'secret bank account.' He also said that if she failed to send the money, she would have to pay a fine of Rs 1 lakh and face three years in jail. She got scared and initially transferred Rs 15.9 lakhs. On February 9, Mishra called her again and claimed that the RBI had issued instructions to freeze her bank accounts. He asked her to liquidate her mutual funds and transfer the money to his account. Then he instructed her to open a new account.
After this, Mishra asked to transfer Rs 5.7 crore. She sold her shares and sent the money. Later, on his instructions, she took a gold loan and sent Rs 11.5 lakh. The accused also asked the woman to create and transfer Rs 70 lakh rupees for a so-called 'White Fund'. For this, she sold her mother's shares.
On April 3, Mishra informed the woman that the case had been closed and she could go to the Andheri police station to get a receipt from the RBI. When she reached the police station to collect the receipt, she realised she had been deceived, so she filed an FIR with the cyber police on April 10.
India's central bank plans to soon change guidelines to permit banks to temporarily freeze accounts suspected of being used to commit cyber crimes, as it battles a rising wave of online crime, three sources told Reuters.
The plans come as internal government data shows individuals have lost funds of nearly $1.26 billion in financial institutions to cyber fraud since 2021, with one of the sources saying about 4,000 fraudulent accounts are opened every day.
Tens of thousands of Indians receive daily telephone calls seeking to defraud them by accessing their bank accounts and wallets to siphon off money that then accumulates in the scammers' accounts.
The Chakshu portal is a new initiative by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to curb suspected fraud communications, simply put, cyber frauds. The feature is now available on the Sanchar Saathi website. People across the country can now report cyber frauds such as fake customer care helplines, bank accounts, payment wallets, gas connections, impersonation of government officials, etc. With the new Chakshu portal, users can report such cyber frauds through calls, SMS or even WhatsApp. Moreover, DoT has also introduced a Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP), which allows information sharing with law enforcement agencies, banks, and other financial institutions to combat these kinds of frauds. So, the Chakshu portal and DIP are expected to help detect and prevent cyber fraud nationwide.
The Ministry of Home Affairs is working on forming a new wing called Cyber Fraud Mitigation Centre under the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) to deal with cyber financial fraud in real-time to save the victim’s money. The FMC will onboard all the agencies dealing with such crimes, including the government, banks, telecom service providers, IT intermediaries and social media companies, who so far till now have been working from different locations and in silos. The interaction among them mostly takes place through an electronic medium that leads to time lag in processing a complaint to counter and retrieve financial fraud or transactions.
The move is part of the 100 days agenda of the MHA for the new government, said, “To prevent and mitigate an online financial fraud in real time, there has been a realisation in the government to work out a seamless synergy among organisations like banks and financial institutions, telecom service providers, IT intermediaries, and social media platforms.” As there is a requirement of linking bank databases and deputing their representatives with the CFMC, not all banks have agreed so far, but major ones have agreed to deploy their representatives.
After Jai-Veeru politics in Madhya Pradesh, state police have also played a filmy stroke to make citizens aware in view of the increasing cyber crimes. The state police has morphed a dialogue of Shahrukh Khan starrer movie 'Om Shanti Om' to make residents of the state to be sensible about the importance of an OTP (One Time Password). Sharing the video on X (formerly twitter) on Wednesday evening from the official handle of Madhya Pradesh Police on the occasion of Karwa Chauth, they wrote, "Keep your OTP as safe as husband."
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