It is unfortunate that I need to discuss again and
again some fraud attempts that are circulating in the Cyber Space in India. Here
I am referring to a mail I recently received from a Netizen in Delhi for which I
have given my advice as I thought fit.
However, in the interest of the Netizen's interest, it is
necessary to bring this incident into public glare since the Netizen community
consists of many who do not understand the risks.
Cyber Laws in India are strong enough to deal with some of
these crimes but the law enforcement has its own priorities.
Most of the times, Police will not recognize a crime unless
they have a complaint on hand. However in some of the cases as mentioned here
in, it is dangerous for an ordinary Netizen/Citizen to file a formal complaint.
The best solution is therefore for the person not to report such an incident to
the Police.
Some of these frauds are such that needs to be taken as
"Attempted Fraud on the Community" and without insisting on a complaint from a
Citizen, the Police should pursue the case.
Most of these go beyond the capacity of the local Police to
take up investigations. It is to be treated as an international fraud and
pursued only by CBI.
The past experience with CBI is that Cyber Crimes really are
not a priority and in some cases where a mere letter needed to be forwarded to
Interpol for details of log in particulars of a customer of a foreign ISP, CBI
is known to be sitting on the request for months.
Perhaps somebody can file a PIL and get the direction from a
Court to initiate action on such frauds. It is only when one realizes the
possible implications of such frauds to the security of the Country will the CBI
realize the urgency to deal with what otherwise appears to be a routine spam or
mischievous communication.
Naavi
August 04 2004
Copy of a Mail received by Naavi from a Netizen in Delhi:
The thing is like that few days ago while chatting on
net , in business and finance room, I had chat with a
person who claimed that he is from West Africa and
working as a real estate holder. he wants to invest
some money(approx. 5 million dollars) in India.
For a while we chat on those grounds. and later he
gave me his phone number and address and also the
procedure and my share in this business.
Earlier i thought he must be joking but now it seems
as if he is pretty much serious(Well! i might be
wrong). When i discussed this with my Fiance. He said
why the hell he is trusting you. And do u know
anything about cybercrime.
So my question is like is it possible to trap somebody
in the name of business on the net. I mean how secure
it is for me if I say yes to him and further proceed.
Please advice as soon as possible.
I am waiting for your response.
Regards,
XXXX
Reply sent to the Netizen:
Dear XXXX
My experience in
such cases is that the offer is most likely to be a fraud.
Either it falls into the category of the Nigerian Mail fraud where you would
be asked at some point of time to pay a small amount of say US 1000 to pay
some bribe somwhere and that will be the extent of cheating.
There have been
reported incidents of losses upto US $8000-10000 and people who were invited
to meet the business contact in a foreign land and disappeared.
The second kind of angle is the havala transactions. In this type, the offer
will be that the investment will be made in cash and initiatlly some US $
50,000 will be sent with a diplomatic contact in a closed briefcase whose
unlock key will be known only to you. You will be asked to receive the
closed brief case at the airport from the diplomat and some body else will come to collect it
from you later. You will be offered a fat commission for this.
If the Police are willing to trap such a person through their
own intelligence operation then it is fine. To be identified as a person who
lead to such a trap is exciting and is worth watching in films. The flip
side is that you would be dealing with an international mafia which may be
into terrorism or drug trafficking and to be even seen in their company is a
big risk.
I advise you to forget and stay away.
Naavi
Na.Vijayashankar
www.naavi.org
www.cyberlawcollege.com
