International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics

Volume 119 No. 17 2018, 1781-1795

ISSN: 1314-3395 (on-line version)
url: http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/
Special Issue
http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/

A Critical Study on Email Related Crimes with

Special Reference to Hoax Emails
1
S. Saiprethi and 2Aswathy Rajan
1
Saveetha School of Law, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical
Sciences, Saveetha University, Chennai. prethiap9@gmail.com
2
Saveetha School of Law, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical
Sciences, Saveetha University, Chennai. aswathyrajan.ssl@saveetha.com
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.

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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

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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.(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.

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International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue

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

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

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.

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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

information@mcaffee.com (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.
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybercrime, lastly visited on
26/05/2018.
[5] Moore, R. (2005) "Cyber crime: Investigating High-Technology
Computer Crime," Cleveland, Mississippi: Anderson Publishing.
[6] http://www.cyberlawsindia.net/internet-crime.html, lastly visited
on 26/05/2018.

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[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybercrime, lastly visited on

26/05/2018.
[8] Moore, R. (2005) "Cyber crime: Investigating High-Technology
Computer Crime," Cleveland, Mississippi: Anderson Publishing.
[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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