29 November,2009 08:09 AM IST | | Vinod Kumar Menon
Unafraid of being punished by law, more youngsters are committing cyber fraud and sending fake threat emails
November 7: A 17-year-old boy was arrested by the Mumbai crime branch officers from Narnal in Haryana, for allegedly sending an email to Air India threatening to blow up an Air India flight. Subsequently, airports all over the country were put on high alert.
May 29: The Cyber Crime Investigation Cell (CCIC) of the Mumbai crime branch arrested 15-year-old Bengaluru teenager for allegedly sending a hoax email to a private news channel. In the e-mail, he claimed to have planted five bombs in Mumbai, challenging the police to find them before it was too late.
June: A class 10 student from Mulund was arrested by the Ahmedabad cyber cops with the help of Mumbai Crime Branch officials for hacking an online shopping website and channeling the money paid by cyber buyers into his own account
Rapidly evolving technology has made it easy for teenagers to commit crimes and pranks and get away with it.
Internet crimes often go anonymous. In the good old days, if anyone placed prank calls, he could get caught very easily. Phones got traced and hand-written letters were a giveaway. But now, sending terror emails from a cyber cafe using a Yahoo US email id is common.
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'Not punished a single cyber criminal'
"We have no deterrents as the law has so far not punished a single cyber criminal. The kids see this and hence believe that even if they get caught, nothing will happen to them. This lack of deterrence will cause the country great harm. It's easy to get stolen credit card numbers on the Internet and kids misuse them and they get addicted to stealing at a young age. This is where they get into bad company and a recruiting ground for terrorism and crime. They also hack into company websites and servers and steal data, and then blackmail the company," says Vijay Mukhi, of DSK Legal Consultant-Cyber Law.
He adds, "We need strict law enforcement and not laws to resolve this serious problem. As a country, we do not seem to be concerned."
However, cyber cops say the recent amendments in the Information Technology Act 2000 gives more teeth to law-enforcing agencies to arrest and prosecute anybody. Now, cops warn that stealing a file stored in your competitor's computer, selling sensitive data, hacking into someone's profile on Orkut, browsing through porn sites and even sending prank threat emails can be traced.u00a0
A senior officer attached to the Cyber Crime Cell says, "If the young, educated group feel that they will not get caught, they are mistaken. The new amended act provides stringent action against such offenders. Youngsters should understand that they are putting their futures at stake."
What counsellors say
Dr Fabian Almeida, child and adolescent psychiatrist, says, "We come across some youths who don't find appropriate ways to channelise their energy, creativity or aggression. They may land up partners in such crimes, without a lethal or a detrimental mindset. They need counselling and treatment as soon as possible."u00a0
Cyber crime fact sheet
>>Over 1,500 complaints received over last seven years
>>The cell receives about 150 cases every year
>>Only 40 complaints have been registered
>>Not one punishment yet for cyber crime cases by Indian courts
>>With the new amendment, it is mandatory that police register and probe the cyber case
America's Internet Crime Complaint Center received 275,284 complaints between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008 in its annual report released this year statedu00a0
