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Cybercrimes
Crimes committed by using digital platforms illegally or wrongfully, such as; harassment, cheating, fraud, hacking, etc. are called cybercrimes.
They can also be called computer crimes. Unjust use of social media sites and applications amounting to the offenses that are penalized by law falls under the category of cyber-crimes. Nowadays, Investigation and security agencies are taking it quite seriously.
There is a list of cybercrimes, some of them are:
Hacking
Data stealing
Virus spyware spreading
Identity theft
Email spoofing or fraud
Pornography
Child pornography
Hack off etc.
The questions we will study, are:
What are cybercrimes?
What are the laws regarding cyber offenses?
What are the punishments and fines for cyber offenses?
How can we file a complaint against Cyber Crimes?
Hacking
Hacking means unauthorisedly doing infiltration with someone’s computer device, informational system, and network or tampering with data.
This type of hacking can be done through physical excess or from remote excess.
Such hacking does not necessarily result in damage to the system, even if there is no damage, infiltration is covered under cybercrime.
Laws for the offense of Hacking
Actions take place under, Section 43(a) and Section 66 of the IT(Informational Technology) Amendment Act 2008, Section 379, and 406 of the IPC (Indian Penal Code).
Punishments for Hacking
If hacking is proved, the offender can be punished for 3-year imprisonment or given a fine of about 5 lakh rupees or maybe both.
(Differs according to the state of crime)
Data stealing
The theft of private or confidential data or information from any technical system of any other person or organization is called data stealing.
Nowadays we can observe the cases of theft of personal data in the call centers or organizations having information and personal data of people.
Example
Suppose, you are authorized to use data of an organization, and if you use your legitimate access illegitimately across your limits, without the permission of the organization with the intention of misuse, then it will also come under data stealing.
Laws for the offense of Data-Stealing
Section 43(b), section 66(e), section 77(c) of IT Amendment Act,2008 and section 379, section 405, section 420 of IPC(Indian Penal Code) and Copyright Act,1957 come into force for the offense of data-stealing.
Punishment for Data Stealing
The offender can be punished with imprisonment up to three years or a fine of up to two lakh rupees or it could be decided according to the severity of the crime.
Virus Spyware Spreading
A Virus can be defined as a malicious executable code that is attached to another executable file that can be harmless or can modify or delete data.
A form of malware that is designed to collect your personal information is called Spyware.
These are ignored by people or remain unidentified, because of their structural setup, which looks identical to the usual functions of the device. Through the computers these viruses reach others, it can spread through downloading, internal networks, wifi connections, and unprotected flash drives.
There is a complete industry of virus makers and a lot of actions are already being taken against them.
By the way, common people can also be attached with its scope if due to negligence, a dangerous virus reaches someone’s system and causes a huge loss.
Laws for the offense of Virus Spyware Spreading
Section-43(c), Section-66 of IT Amendment Act, 2008, and Section-268 of the IPC(Indian Penal Code).
In the case of the spread of the virus to damage the security and integrity of the country, Section-66(f) of IPC, related to cyber-terrorism will be applied, which is non-bailable.
Punishment for Virus Spyware Spreading
In cases of cyber terrorism, the offender will be sentenced to life imprisonment and in other cases, imprisonment can be up to 3 years or an amount fine can be implemented.
Identity Theft
The theft of the data related to another person or the use of personal data of others is called identity theft.
For example
Use of another’s credit card number, Aadhaar card information, digital identity cards, or using the electronic signature of someone for e-commerce transactions or theft of banking details of someone and using them for transactions comes under the offense of identity theft.
Laws for the offense of Identity Theft
Section-43, 66(c) of IT Amendment Act,2008, and Section-419 of IPC(Indian Penal Code).
Punishment for Identity Theft
The offender can be punished for up to 3 years or the amount extending up to one lakh rupees can be fined, or both. (It differs according to the seriousness or severity of the offense)
Email Spoofing or Fraud
Intentionally sending wrong emails to someone using another’s email address, comes under email spoofing.
These types of frauds can be used with the intention to do hacking, phishing, or to spread virus spyware for getting personal information like bank details, e-commerce passwords, etc. of the recipient of that email.
Laws for the offense of Email Spoofing or Fraud
Section-77(b) of IT Act 2000, Section-66(d) of IT Amendment Act,2008, and Section-417, 419, 420, and 465 of IPC(Indian Penal Code).
Punishment for email Spoofing or Fraud
Imprisonment of up to 3 years or can be fined, or both.
Pornography
Publishing, sharing, recording of such types of photos, videos, text, audio, etc., which is related to sexual activities or which are manifesting nudeness or sexual acts is called pornography and it is an offense.
If these types of things are sent to someone or published by someone by electronic mediums then Pornography Contraceptive Laws will be implemented on it.
Those people who make porn videos or MMS (multimedia message) of someone’s nudity and send or publish those videos or photos by electronic means or social media platforms are cybercriminals.
These types of acts encourage heinous crimes like child trafficking and women trafficking.
For example
Sending someone these types of messages on social media platforms without others’ consent also comes under the offense of pornography.
Note
Publishing or sending this type of pornographic content is illegal but if an adult is reading, watching, or listening to these contents, it is not illegal, because of a fundamental right i.e right to personal liberty.
Education-related material prepared under legal prescriptions (Physical education and science (biology), etc.) won’t fall under pornography.
Laws for the offense of Pornography
Section-66(a) of IT Amendment Act, 2008 and Section-292, 293, 294, 500, 506, and 509 of IPC(Indian Penal Code).
Punishment for Pornography
It is decided according to the graveness of the offense, it can be of 5 years imprisonment or fine up to ten lakh at first offense, second offense imprisonment can be of 7 years or more accordingly.
Child Pornography
Child pornography also falls under the category of cybercrime.
In these types of cases, laws are more strict, involving children in sexual activities, showing them content having nudity, making videos of them during these activities, and sending or publishing these activities to someone, falls under child pornography.
Law says that people who collect porn content of children, prepare that content, search, download, give advertisement, promote or send, or share such content to someone, are all cybercriminals. Because all these activities are illegal.
Tricking children to prepare them for online relations, building a sexual relationship with them, recording or making MMS of sexual activities related to children, and sending them to others, all fall under child pornography.
(Here children word means as minors (children under 18 years of age)
Laws for the offense of Child Pornography
Section-66(b) of IT Amendment Act, 2008 and Section-292,293,294,500,506,509 of IPC(Indian Penal Code).
Punishment for Child Pornography
For the crime committed for the first time, imprisonment up to five years or fine up to 10 lakhs.
When committed second crime, imprisonment up to seven years or fine up to 10 lakhs.
(differs according to the situation and severity of the case)
Hack off
A lot of cases of harassment of children, girls, and women through social networking sites or applications can be seen arising in this digital era.
Sending threatening messages (rape threats etc.), harassing content, or porn content to someone through digital mediums falls under cybercrimes.
Spreading of maliciousness in society against anyone.
Law for the offense of “Hack off”
Section-66(a) of IT Amendment Act.
Punishment for Hack off
Imprisonment up to 3 years or fine, or both.
(according to the severity of the crime)
Extortion and Sextortion
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No one should share their personal content with some known or unknown person in faith or, negligently by accessing some unknown link or joining some unknown video call on social media platforms, as it can be misused anytime and in any way.
Scammer after collecting your personal information, some confidential videos or photos, starts demanding you to share him/her ransom money or more details, such as bank details (pins) or some nude content related to you, otherwise, scammer threats to send or publish the sensitive content that he collected by you through fraud and which will result in the notoriety of you and will disrepute your family.
In most cases, people get feared from these threats and share their sensitive data with the scammer.
Never make the mistake of closing the matter on your own by giving some amount, because that little amount will soon start to change into big demand.
This is definitely not the correct way to deal with this, the victim must file a legal complaint regarding the situation.
How to file a complaint
For the complaints about cybercrimes, you need not go to a police station, you can file complaints online. [You can file complaints at police stations too]
The website for filing complaints of cybercrimes is cybercrime.gov.in .
After opening the site, you will reach the “national crime portal”, where you can find all the necessary information and procedure.
In the case of a child or woman, you can hide your identity if you want.
File complaints with proofs (for example- screenshots, videos, photos, etc.)
Give every little information about the crime and the offender.
Provide every detail or information you have about the offender.
You can check the status of your complaint through the registered mobile number or email.
Mistake everyone should avoid after getting trapped by a scammer
After getting caught in a scammer's trap, never ever make the mistake of deleting your account or I’d from digital platforms to save yourself from those scammers. By doing this you will erase all the evidence against scammers yourself, it may cause difficulties for investigation agencies to take legal actions against the scammers.
The writer is pursuing a degree of BA.LL.B (Bachelors of legislative law)
From, Department Of Law, Maharshi Dayanand University (Rohtak) Haryana, INDIA.
Reach her at Instagram @sakshiydv1108
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