a critical study on email related crimes with special reference to … · 2018-07-29 · a critical...

A Critical Study on Email Related Crimes with

Special Reference to Hoax Emails 1S. Saiprethi and

2Aswathy Rajan

1Saveetha School of Law, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical

Sciences, Saveetha University, Chennai. [email protected] 2Saveetha School of Law, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical

Sciences, Saveetha University, Chennai. [email protected]

Abstract This paper deals with the topic of “Critical study on email related crimes

with special reference to hoax emails. The main aim of this research paper

is to examine whether the existing laws in India such as Information

Technology Act, 2000 and the Indian Penal Code provides for the

protection against all cyber crimes. In this paper, the researcher has focused

on what is email related cyber crimes, special reference to hoax emails.

Email has fast emerged as the world's most preferred form of

communication. Billions of email messages traverse the globe daily. Like

any other form of communication, email is also misused by criminal

elements. The ease, speed and relative anonymity of email has made it a

powerful tool for criminals. These crimes are committed by a selected

group of criminals. Unlike crimes using the computer as a tool, these

crimes require the technical knowledge of the perpetrators. As such, as

technology evolves, so too does the nature of the crime. These crimes are

relatively new, having been in existence for only as long as computers

have—which explains how unprepared society and the world in general is

towards combating these crimes. When the individual is the main target of

cybercrime, the computer can be considered as the tool rather than the

target. These crimes generally involve less technical expertise. Human

weaknesses are generally exploited. The damage dealt is largely

psychological and intangible, making legal action against the variants more

difficult. These are the crimes which have existed for centuries in the offline

world. Scams, theft, and the likes have existed even before the development

in high-tech equipment. The same criminal has simply been given a tool

which increases his potential pool of victims and makes him all the harder

to trace and apprehend.

Key Words:Cyber crime, email cyber crimes, hoax emails, threatening

email, offence and punishment.

International Journal of Pure and Applied MathematicsVolume 119 No. 17 2018, 1781-1795ISSN: 1314-3395 (on-line version)url: http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/Special Issue http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/

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1. Introduction

Computer crime is a general term that embraces such crimes as phishing, credit

card frauds, bank robbery, illegal downloading, industrial espionage, child

pornography, kidnapping children via chat rooms, scams, cyber terrorism,

creation and/or distribution of viruses, Spam and so on. All such crimes are

computer related and facilitated crimes. With the evolution of the Internet,

along came another revolution of crime where the perpetrators commit acts of

crime and wrongdoing on the World Wide Web. Internet crime takes many

faces and is committed in diverse fashions. The number of users and their

diversity in their makeup has exposed the Internet to everyone. Some criminals

in the Internet have grown up understanding this superhighway of information,

unlike the older generation of users. This is why Internet crime has now become

a growing problem in the United States. Some crimes committed on the Internet

have been exposed to the world and some remain a mystery up until they are

perpetrated against someone or some company.

The different types of Internet crime vary in their design and how easily they

are able to be committed. Internet crimes can be separated into two different

categories. There are crimes that are only committed while being on the Internet

and are created exclusively because of the World Wide Web. The typical crimes

in criminal history are now being brought to a whole different level of

innovation and ingenuity. Such new crimes devoted to the Internet are email

―phishing‖, hijacking domain names, virus immistion, and cyber vandalism. A

couple of these crimes are activities that have been exposed and introduced into

the world. People have been trying to solve virus problems by installing virus

protection software and other software that can protect their computers. Other

crimes such as email ―phishing‖ are not as known to the public until an

individual receives one of these fraudulent emails. These emails are cover faced

by the illusion that the email is from your bank or another bank. When a person

reads the email he/she is informed of a problem with he/she personal account or

another individual wants to send the person some of their money and deposit it

directly into their account. The email asks for your personal account

information and when a person gives this information away, they are financing

the work of a criminal.

Email has fast emerged as the world's most preferred form of communication.

Billions of email messages traverse the globe daily. Like any other form of

communication, email is also misused by criminal elements. The ease, speed

and relative anonymity of email has made it a powerful tool for criminals. These

crimes are committed by a selected group of criminals. Unlike crimes using the

computer as a tool, these crimes require the technical knowledge of the

perpetrators. As such, as technology evolves, so too does the nature of the

crime. These crimes are relatively new, having been in existence for only as

long as computers have—which explains how unprepared society and the world

in general is towards combating these crimes. When the individual is the main

International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue

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target of cybercrime, the computer can be considered as the tool rather than the


weaknesses are generally exploited. The damage dealt is largely psychological

and intangible, making legal action against the variants more difficult.(United

Nations 2010) These are the crimes which have existed for centuries in the

offline world. Scams, theft, and the likes have existed even before the

development in high-tech equipment. The same criminal has simply been given

a tool which increases his potential pool of victims and makes him all the harder

to trace and apprehend.

2. Aim of the Study

To study the email fraud.

To learn the different kinds of email cyber crimes.

To study the laws regulating the email crimes in India.

To learn about the hoax email cyber crimes.

3. Research Methodology

The researcher has adopted doctrinal method of research and the entire paper is

in the form of analysis of the established procedures, thereby following

analytical mode of research. The primary sources for this research paper are the

Information Technology Act, 2000 and relevant judicial decisions. Secondary

sources include books, articles and web sources.

HYPOTHESIS: There is no significant laws existing in India for all email

related cyber crimes and the existing laws need further amendments to provide

for all email cyber crimes in specific.

4. Email Related Crimes, an Introduction

Computer crime is a general term that embraces such crimes as phishing, credit

card frauds, bank robbery, illegal downloading, industrial espionage, child

pornography, kidnapping children via chat rooms, scams, cyber terrorism,

creation and/or distribution of viruses, Spam and so on. All such crimes are

computer related and facilitated crimes. With the evolution of the Internet,

along came another revolution of crime where the perpetrators commit acts of

crime and wrongdoing on the World Wide Web. Internet crime takes many

faces and is committed in diverse fashions. The number of users and their

diversity in their makeup has exposed the Internet to everyone. Some criminals

in the Internet have grown up understanding this superhighway of information,

unlike the older generation of users. This is why Internet crime has now become

a growing problem in the United States(United Nations 2010). Some crimes

committed on the Internet have been exposed to the world and some remain a

mystery up until they are perpetrated against someone or some company.


1783

The different types of Internet crime vary in their design and how easily they

are able to be committed. Internet crimes can be separated into two different

categories. There are crimes that are only committed while being on the Internet

and are created exclusively because of the World Wide Web. The typical crimes

in criminal history are now being brought to a whole different level of

innovation and ingenuity. Such new crimes devoted to the Internet are email

―phishing‖, hijacking domain names, virus immistion, and cyber vandalism. A

couple of these crimes are activities that have been exposed and introduced into

the world. People have been trying to solve virus problems by installing virus

protection software and other software that can protect their computers. Other

crimes such as email ―phishing‖ are not as known to the public until an

individual receives one of these fraudulent emails. These emails are cover faced

by the illusion that the email is from your bank or another bank. When a person

reads the email he/she is informed of a problem with he/she personal account or

another individual wants to send the person some of their money and deposit it

directly into their account. The email asks for your personal account

information and when a person gives this information away, they are financing

the work of a criminal. (Wall 2007)

What is Email Related Crimes and its Types




and relative anonymity of email has made it a powerful tool for criminals. These

crimes are committed by a selected group of criminals. Unlike crimes using the

computer as a tool, these crimes require the technical knowledge of the

perpetrators. As such, as technology evolves, so too does the nature of the

crime. These crimes are relatively new, having been in existence for only as

long as computers have-which explains how unprepared society and the world

in general is towards combating these crimes. When the individual is the main

target of cybercrime, the computer can be considered as the tool rather than the


weaknesses are generally exploited. The damage dealt is largely psychological

and intangible, making legal action against the variants more difficult. These are

the crimes which have existed for centuries in the offline world. Scams, theft,

and the likes have existed even before the development in high-tech equipment.

The same criminal has simply been given a tool which increases his potential

pool of victims and makes him all the harder to trace and apprehend.(Wall

2007; Computer Forensics and Cyber Crime: A...)




and relative anonymity of email has made it a powerful tool for criminals.


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Some of the major email related crimes are:

Email spoofing

Sending malicious codes through email

Email bombing

Sending threatening emails

Defamatory emails

Email frauds(Singer and Friedman 2014)

Email Spoofing

A spoofed email is one that appears to originate from one source but has

actually emerged from another source. Falsifying the name and / or email

address of the originator of the email usually does email spoofing. usually to

send an email the sender has to enter the following information:

email address of the receiver of the email

email address(es) of the person(s) who will receive a copy of the email

(referred to as CC for carbon copy)

email address(es) of the person(s) who will receive a copy of the email

(referred to as CC for carbon copy, but whose identities will not be

known to the other recipients of the e-mail (known as BCC for blind

carbon copy)

Subject of the message (a short title / description of the message)

Message

Certain web-based email services like www.SendFakeMail.com, offer a facility

wherein in addition to the above, a sender can also enter the email address of the

purported sender of the email.(Singer and Friedman 2014; Glaessner et al.

2004)

Spreading Trojans, Viruses and Worms

Emails are often the fastest and easiest ways to propagate malicious code over

the Internet. The Love Bug virus, for instance, reached millions of computers

within 36 hours of its release from the Philippines thanks to email. Hackers

often bind Trojans, viruses, worms and other computer contaminants with e-

greeting cards and then email them to unsuspecting persons. Such contaminants

can also be bound with software that appears to be an antivirus patch. E.g. a

person receives an email from Compose From To CC BCC Subject.(Singer and

Friedman 2014; Glaessner et al. 2004; Viano 2016)

Message

[email protected] (this is a spoofed email but the victim does not

know this). The email informs him that the attachment contained with the email

is a security patch that must be downloaded to detect a certain new virus. Most

unsuspecting users would succumb to such an email (if they are using a

registered copy of the McAffee antivirus software) and would download the

attachment, which actually could be a Trojan or a virus itself.(Singer and

Friedman 2014; Glaessner et al. 2004; Viano 2016; Yar 2013)


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Email Bombing

Email bombing refers to sending a large amount of emails to the victim

resulting in the victim's email account (in case of an individual) or servers (in

case of a company or an email service provider) crashing. A simple way of

achieving this would be to subscribe the victim's email address to a large

number of mailing lists. Mailing lists are special interest groups that share and

exchange information on a common topic of interest with one another via email.

Mailing lists are very popular and can generate a lot of daily email traffic -

depending upon the mailing list. Some generate only a few messages per day

others generate hundreds. If a person has been unknowingly subscribed to

hundreds of mailing lists, his incoming email traffic will be too large and his

service provider will probably delete his account. The simplest email bomb is

an ordinary email account. All that one has to do is compose a message, enter

the email address of the victim multiple times in the "To" field, and press the

"Send" button many times. Writing the email address 25 times and pressing the

"Send" button just 50 times (it will take less than a minute) will send 1250

email messages to the victim! If a group of 10 people do this for an hour, the

result would be 750,000 emails! There are several hacking tools available to

automate the process of email bombing. These tools send multiple emails from

many different email servers, which makes it very difficult, for the victim to

protect himself.(Poulsen 2011)

Threatening Emails

Email is a useful tool for technology savvy criminals thanks to the relative

anonymity offered by it. It becomes fairly easy for anyone with even a basic

knowledge of computers to become a blackmailer by threatening someone via

e-mail.

In a recent case, Poorva received an e-mail message from someone who called

him or herself 'your friend'. The attachment with the e-mail contained morphed

pornographic photographs of Poorva. The mail message said that if Poorva were

not to pay Rs. 10,000 at a specified place every month, the photographs would

be uploaded to the Net and then a copy sent to her fiancé. Scared, Poorva at first

complied with the wishes of the blackmailer and paid the first Rs. 10, 000. Next

month, she knew she would have to approach her parents. Then, trusting the

reasonableness of her fiancé she told him the truth. Together they approached

the police. Investigation turned up the culprit - Poorva's supposed friend who

wanted that Poorva and her fiancé should break up so that she would get her

chance with him.(Poulsen 2011)

Defamatory Emails

As has been discussed earlier cyber-defamation or even cyber-slander as it is

called can prove to be very harmful and even fatal to the people who have been

made its victims.


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Email Frauds

Email spoofing is very often used to commit financial crimes. It becomes a

simple thing not just to assume someone else's identity but also to hide one's

own. The person committing the crime understands that there is very little

chance of his actually being identified. In a recently reported case, a Pune based

businessman received an email from the Vice President of the Asia

Development Bank (ADB) offering him a lucrative contract in return for Rs 10

lakh. The businessman verified the email address of the Vice President from the

web site of the ADB and subsequently transferred the money to the bank

account mentioned in the email. It later turned out that the email was a spoofed

one and was actually sent by an Indian based in Nigeria. In another famous

case, one Mr. Rao sent himself spoofed emails, which were supposedly from the

Euro Lottery Company. These mails informed him that he had won the largest

lottery. He also created a website in the name of the Euro Lottery Company,

announced n it that he had won the Euro Lottery and uploaded it on to the

Internet. He then approached the Income Tax authorities in India and procured a

clearance certificate from them for receiving the lottery amount. In order to let

people know about the lottery, he approached many newspapers and magazines.

The media seeing this as a story that would interest a lot of readers hyped it up

and played a vital role in spreading this misinformation. Mr. Rao then went to

many banks and individuals and told them that having won such a large sum of

money he was afraid for his safety. He also wanted to move into a better house.

He wheedled money out of these institutions and people by telling them that

since the lottery prize money would take some time to come to him, he would

like to borrow money from them. He assured them that the loan amount would

be returned as soon as the lottery money came into his possession. Lulled into

believing him (all thanks to the Income Tax clearance) most of these people

loaned large amounts of money to him. It was only when he did not pay back

the loan amounts to the banks that they became suspicious. A countercheck by

the authorities revealed the entire scheme. Mr. Rao was arrested. Later, it was

found that some of the money had been donated for philanthropic causes and

also to political parties(Dunbar 1570).

5. Existing Laws in India Prohibiting

and Governing the Cybercrimes in India

Indian Legal Provisions Pertaining to Cyber Crimes

In this chapter, we will discuss about the existing provisions in the Indian laws

say Information Technology Act,2000 and the Indian Penal Code.

Section-65B The computer from which record is generated was regularly used to

process or store information in respect of activity regularly carried on by

a person having lawful control over the period.


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Information was fed in the computer in ordinary course of activities of

person having lawful control over computer.

Computer was operating properly and not such as to affect the electronic

record or its accuracy

Information reproduced is such as is fed into computer in ordinary

course of activity

Section 75

Information Technology Act, 2000-came into force on 17 October 2000,

extends to whole of India and also applies to any offence or contravention there

under committed outside India by any person {section 1 (2)} read with Section

75- Act applies to offence or contravention committed outside India by any

person irrespective of his nationality, if such act involves a computer, computer

system or network located in India. Section 2 (1) (a) –‖Access‖ means gaining

entry into ,instructing or communicating with the logical, arithmetic or memory

function resources of a computer, computer resource or network.

Section 67

Sending pornographic or obscene emails are punishable under Section 67 of the

IT Act. An offence under this section is punishable on first conviction with

imprisonment for a term, which may extend to five years and with fine, which

may extend to One lakh rupees. In the event of a second or subsequent

conviction the recommended punishment is imprisonment for a term, which

may extend to ten years and also with fine which may extend to Two lakh

rupees.

Defamatory Emails

Emails that are defamatory in nature are punishable under Section 500 of the

Indian Penal Code (IPC), which prescribes an imprisonment of upto two years

or a fine or both.

Threatening emails are punishable under the provisions of the IPC pertaining to

criminal intimidation, insult and annoyance (Chapter XXII), extortion (Chapter

XVII)

Email Spoofing

Email spoofing is covered under provisions of the IPC relating to fraud,

cheating by personation (Chapter XVII)- cheating by impersonation forgery

(Chapter XVIII)

International Convention on Prevention Of Cyber Crimes

Representatives from the 26 Council of Europe members, the United States,

Canada, Japan and South Africa in 2001 signed a convention on cybercrime in

efforts to enhance international cooperation in combating computer-based

crimes. The Convention on Cybercrime, drawn up by experts of the Council of

Europe, is designed to coordinate these countries' policies and laws on penalties

on crimes in cyberspace, define the formula guaranteeing the efficient operation


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of the criminal and judicial authorities, and establish an efficient mechanism for

international cooperation. In 1997, The G-8 Ministers agreed to ten "Principles

to Combat High-Tech Crime" and an "Action Plan to Combat High-Tech

Crime."

Main objectives

Create effective cyber crime laws,

Handle jurisdiction issues ,

Cooperate in international Investigations,

Develop acceptable practices for search and seizure,

Establish effective public/private sector interaction.[9]

Relevant Cases and Recent Incidents on Hoax Emails

The threatening emails and SMS were hitherto covered under Section 506

Indian Penal Code. However, with the insertion of Section 66A IT Act, in force

w.e.f. 27th

October, 2009, these offending emails, SMS are covered under IT

Act.

Threatening Email to Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Orissa: The

news report shows that various threatening emails have been sent to the

Chief Minister, Orissa Mr. Naveen Patnaik. A person was arrested and

the investigation revealed that though the e-mail was sent in the name of

one Prakash Behera alias Babuli Behera, the police nabbed his cousin

Pratap Behera (35) of Astaranga in Puri who confessed to the crime

during interrogation. The investigation revealed that the Prakash Behera

has no knowledge of Internet. The investigation revealed that Pratap’s

family had some land dispute with Prakash’s family and to settle a score

Pratap created an e-mail ID in the name of Prakash and sent the mail to

the Chief Minister. The case was registered u/s 66A IT Act, r/w 506

IPC.

Man arrested for making hoax call: A 25-year-old man was arrested

on 9TH

May, 2010 for making an anonymous call warning that Delhi

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s life was in danger. Veer Singh, a

resident of Farsh Vihar in east Delhi, allegedly made the call Thursday

to implicate a man who was harassing him to repay his dues. He had

stolen a mobile phone from Narela in outer Delhi to make the call to the

police control room and then called up the other man. Veer Singh

thought the police would track down the other person and arrest him in

connection with the death threat to the Delhi chief minister.

Threatening SMS sent to Shashi Tharoor, Ex-Union Minister for

State and other Parliamentarians: The accused person ―A‖ was

having animosity towards other person ―B‖ in a love triangle, and the A

in order to frame B, impersonated himself as B and send threatening

SMSs to parliamentarians. The various FIRs were registered u/s 66A IT

Act, r/w 506, 507, 509 IPC was registered in various police stations in

Delhi, Haryana and Himanchal Pradesh.[10]


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The aforesaid incidents revealed that the offending SMS, emails were generally

send by the accused persons via electronic medium be it mobile phone or

computer network to implicate others. Thus, the alleged act of sending SMS via

mobile phone or offending or threatening Email involving criminal intimidation

including danger and obstruction are squarely covered under Section 66 A of

Information Technology Act, 2000 and there is no application of Section 506

IPC to the alleged act. It would be pertinent to mention here that the bail of the

accused person who sent threatening email to CM Naveen Patnaik was denied

because of the applicability of Section 506 IPC which in State of Orissa is non

bailable. However, the invoking of Section 506/507 IPC to the alleged act is not

correct by virtue of Section 81 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 which

gives an overriding effect to the provisions of the IT Act over the other Acts

including the Indian Penal Code. It clearly states that, ―the provisions of this

Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith

contained in any other law for the time being in force.‖ Thus, this section of

the Information Technology Act 2000 if read with Section 66A makes the

legislative mandate very clear & loud that in matters pertaining to threat or

criminal intimidation via a computer resource or communication device, the IT

Act 2000 would have an overriding effect over other law including the Indian

Penal Code in view of the clear mandate of Section 81 IT Act. The Section 81

IT Act, is reproduced below:-

“81. Act to have overriding effect.

The provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything

inconsistent therewith contained in any other law for the time being in force.

Provided that nothing contained in this Act shall restrict any person from

exercising any right conferred under the Copyright Act, 1957 or the Patents

Act, 1970.”

Even otherwise, Hon’ble Apex Court in case titled as Suresh Nanda Vs.

C.B.I.[11] held that the Special Act prevails over General Acts. The author has

successfully represented the accused persons in the Shashi Tharoor SMS case

and secured their bail by successfully arguing that in view of the specific

provisions in the I.T. Acts, 2000, which are bailable in nature, the same would

have the overriding effect by virtue of non obstante clause in Section 81 IT Act

and the other offences of the IPC have been added by the prosecution merely for

the purpose of making the offence non bailable in nature and they are not

applicable. The author argued in length and stated vehemently before the

Session Court that as the result of the investigation done by the Delhi Police

which clearly reveals that the alleged act of threatening, criminal intimidation

and endanger was with the sole intention to harass the other person involved in

love triangle and clearly, there was no intention to execute the threat or commit

extortion which is one of the essential ingredients to bring home the offences

mentioned under Section 506 IPC. Even otherwise the offence u/s 506 IPC in

Delhi is bailable. Further, no overt act has been alleged to be done by the


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accused persons which show any intention to execute the threat or extortion.

Bomb Hoax mail In 2009, a 15-year-old Bangalore teenager was arrested by the

cyber crime investigation cell (CCIC) of the city crime branch for allegedly

sending a hoax email to a private news channel. In the email, he claimed to have

planted five bombs in Mumbai, challenging the police to find them before it was

too late. At around 1pm. on May 25, the news channel received an email that

read: ―I have planted five bombs in Mumbai; you have two hours to find it.‖

The police, who were alerted immediately, traced the Internet Protocol (IP)

address to Vijay Nagar in Bangalore. The Internet service provider for the

account was BSNL, said officials.(Richardson 2014)In a joint operation with the

Bangalore police, CCIC investigators identified the perpetrator of the e-mail

and zeroed in on teenager Krishna Singh (name changed), son a local

businessman.

Singh was brought to Mumbai on Thursday night and arrested for criminal

intimidation. The Information Technology (amended) Acts section for cyber

terrorism, however, was not included in the charge sheet.

Curiosity, it appears, was the main motive. During the interrogation, Singh

allegedly told the police that he had no intention of committing any crime, but

simply wanted to know what would happen if he sent a hoax threat by email to a

news channel. Nevertheless, police officials said they checked his computer

thoroughly. Singh was sent to a juvenile remand home in Dongri, and was

granted bail later.

Jurisdiction to Investigate Cyber Crimes

In India, the concept of cyber offences and laws are new and witnessed only

few policies and laws. The main provisions which deal with the jurisdiction of

cyber law in the country, are section 75 of the information Technology Act.

Section 3 and 4 of IPC deals with the extra judicial power given to the Indian

courts in interpreting matters relating to deciding the jurisdiction of Indian

courts. The Delhi High court in SMC Pneumatics pvt.ltd v Jogesh Kwarta[13]

opined that the concept of consequences and cause of action extends jurisdiction

but a conflicting situation arises where there is no defined regulation at one of

the places. The Supreme Court has recognized the need of the judiciary to

interpret a statute by making allowances for any relevant technological change

that has occurred.

Section 46

IT Act confers legal recognition to electronic records and digital signatures

(section 4,5 of the IT Act,2000) Section 46 of the IT Act states that an

adjudicating officer shall be adjudging whether a person has committed a

contravention of any of the provisions of the said Act, by holding an inquiry.

Principles of audi alterum partum and natural justice are enshrined in the said

section which stipulates that a reasonable opportunity of making a

representation shall be granted to the concerned person who is alleged to


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have violated the provisions of the IT Act. The said Act stipulates that the

inquiry will be carried out in the manner as prescribed by the Central

Government.

All proceedings before him are deemed to be judicial proceedings, every

Adjudicating Officer has all powers conferred on civil courts. Appeal to cyber

Appellate Tribunal- from decision of Controller, Adjudicating Officer {section

57 IT act).[15]

United States of America, US Wire Fraud Act, Comparative Analysis

U.S.C. § 1341 provides:

Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to

defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent

pretenses, representations, or promises, or to sell, dispose of, loan, exchange,

alter, give away, distribute, supply, or furnish or procure for unlawful use any

counterfeit or spurious coin, obligation, security, or other article, or anything

represented to be or intimated or held out to be such counterfeit or spurious

article, for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice or attempting so to

do, places in any post office or authorized depository for mail matter, any

matter or thing whatever to be sent or delivered by the , or deposits or causes to

be deposited any matter or thing whatever to be sent or delivered by any private

or commercial interstate carrier, or takes or receives therefrom, any such matter

or thing, or knowingly causes to be delivered by mail or such carrier according

to the direction thereon,(Sells 2000) or at the place at which it is directed to be

delivered by the person to whom it is addressed, any such matter or thing, shall

be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. If the

violation occurs in relation to, or involving any benefit authorized, transported,

transmitted, transferred, disbursed, or paid in connection with, a Presidential

declared major disaster or emergency (as those terms are defined in section 102

of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42

U.S.C. 5122)), or affects a financial institution, such person shall be fined not

more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.(United

States and United States. Cong...)

18 U.S.C. § 1343 provides: Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any

scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of

false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to

be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in

interstate or foreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds

for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, shall be fined under this

title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. If the violation affects a

financial institution, such person shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or

imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.


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6. Conclusion

ASLU Survey published in March 2003-Incidence of Cyber crime in India Non

Reporting-causes

60% feared negative publicity

23% did not know police equipped to handle cyber crimes

9% feared further cyber attacks

8% had no awareness of cyber laws

False arrest concerns

Mumbai Cyber lab is a joint initiative of Mumbai police and

NASSCOM –more exchange and coordination of this kind.(Kannan and

Jayanthi Kannan 2017)

The above mentioned survey shows that the present cyber crimes prevention

system in India is ineffective and it needs several further amendments regarding

the technicalities and the growing technology advancements. More provisions to

be included regarding the hoax email and the email bombing offences and their

specific punishments. Suggested amendments to the IT Act,2000-new

provisions for child pornography, etc

More Public awareness campaigns

Training of police officers to effectively combat cyber crimes

More Cyber crime police cells set up across the country

Effective E-surveillance

Websites aid in creating awareness and encouraging reporting of cyber

crime cases.

Specialised Training of forensic investigators and experts

Active coordination between police and other law enforcement agencies

and authorities is required.

References

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybercrime, lastly visited on 26/05/2018.

[2] Moore, R. (2005) "Cyber crime: Investigating High-Technology Computer Crime," Cleveland, Mississippi: Anderson Publishing.

[3] http://www.cyberlawsindia.net/internet-crime.html, lastly visited on 26/05/2018.



[6] http://www.cyberlawsindia.net/internet-crime.html, lastly visited on 26/05/2018.


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[9] Cyber crimes in India, by Amrita Verma, Central law publications. P.144 to p. 145.

[10] http://www.neerajaarora.com/the-legislative-response-to-grossly-offensive-or-menacing-emails-and-sms/, latly visited on 28/05/2018.

[11] Criminal Appeal No. 179 of 2008 in SLP (Crl.) No. 3408 of 2007.

[12] http://niiconsulting.com/checkmate/2014/06/it-act-2000-penalties-offences-with-case-studies/, lastly visited on 29/05/2018.

[13] Suit No. 129/2001.

[14] SIL Import v. Exim Aides Silk Importers, (1999)4 SCC 567.

[15] Dhawesh Pahuja, Cyber Crimes and The Law, legal India(July 11, 2011), http://www.legalindia.com/cyber -crimes-and -the-law/, lastly vivted on 30/05/2018.

[16] U.S.C. § 1341.

[17] U.S.C. § 1343.

[18] http://blog.logix.in/email-spoofing/ , lastly visited on 29/05/2018.


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a critical study on email related crimes with special reference to … · 2018-07-29 · a critical...

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