READIT-2007 - Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research

selling on the site called Bazee.com by a student from IIT Kharagpur is a recent case comes
under this category.
4.4 Online gambling
Online gambling is a general term for gambling using the Internet. There are millions of
websites which are hosted on servers abroad. They offer online gambling where gamblers upload
funds to the online gambling company, make bets or play the games that it offers, and then cash
out any winnings. In fact, it is believed that many of these websites are actually fronts for money
laundering. Cases of hawala transactions and money laundering over the Internet have been
reported.
Recent Indian case about cyber lotto was very interesting. Kola Mohan has invented the
story of winning the Euro Lottery. He himself created a website and an email address on the
Internet with the address 'eurolottery@usa.net.' Whenever accessed, the site would name him as
the beneficiary of the 12.5 million pound. After confirmation a Telgu newspaper published this
as a news. Kola Mohan collected huge sums from the public as well as from some banks for
mobilization of the deposits in foreign currency. However, the fraud came to light when a cheque
discounted by him with the Andhra Bank for Rs 1.73 million bounced. Mohan had pledged with
Andhra Bank the copy of a bond certificate purportedly issued by Midland Bank, London stating
that a term deposit of 12.5 million was held in his name.
4.5 Intellectual Property crimes (or) Cybersquatting
Recent researches indicate that Intellectual property crime or Cybersquatting is one of the
fastest-growing areas of criminal activity in the world which include software piracy, copyright
infringement, trademarks violations, theft of computer source code etc.
In India, Satyam Vs. Siffy is the most widely known case which comes under this
category. Bharti Cellular Ltd. filed a case in the Delhi High Court that some cyber squatters had
registered domain names such as barticellular.com and bhartimobile.com with Network solutions
under different fictitious names. The court directed Network Solutions not to transfer the domain
names in question to any third party and the matter is sub-judice. Similar issues had risen before
various High Courts earlier.
4.6 Email spoofing
A spoofed email is one that appears to originate from one source but actually has been
sent from another source. e.g. Rama has an e-mail address rama@yahoo.org. His enemy, Ravana
spoofs his e-mail and sends obscene messages to all her acquaintances. Since the e-mails appear
to have originated from Rama, his friends could take offence and relationships could be spoiled
for life. This kind of email spoofing is very common in India and recently one such incident took
place for one of our LIS colleague. Email spoofing can also cause monetary damage.
Email spoofing becomes a big problem in India. Gujarat Ambuja’s Executive case is a
best example for this crime where he pretended to be a girl and cheated an NRI who is based at
Abu Dhabi for crores of rupees by blackmailing tactics.
4.7 Forgery
Forgery has becoming a booming business in India. Counterfeit currency notes, postage
and revenue stamps, mark sheets etc can be forged using sophisticated computers, printers and
scanners.
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