of jilted lovers, bullied colleagues and jealous rivals are going
online to settle scores. They hack your e-mail, parade you on sleazy
sites and rob you of your peace of mind. How well-equipped are we to
handle this growing menace?
VISHANT V AGARWALA TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Here's what an ad posted on Adult-FriendFinder.com in the
'miscellaneous fetishes' category had to say: "28/f/del looking for a
good time". It continued, "I don't mind orgies or sex with other
women. My husband might join us as well." The classified went on to
detail various sex acts the person posting it would "love to" engage
in and ended with a name (let's call her Preeti), a telephone number
spelt out in alphabets to beat search engines, and a request for
calls.
Preeti, however, has no interest in random sex, and neither does
her husband, whose full name was mentioned in the ad which, not
surprisingly, was put up by someone else. The Delhi-based woman found
herself receiving a series of disturbing phone calls. A couple of days
later, one caller — after he was threatened with police action —
admitted he had seen an ad placed by her on the web site.
The agonised woman then wrote a mail to the website's
administrators and they promptly pulled out the ad, promising they
would also provide the offenders' IP address if a request was
forwarded by the police. But the damage was done and she chose not to
pursue the matter, fearing it might complicate things further. She
didn't approach the police even when her husband goaded her to.
Instead, she changed her cell phone number and now thinks twice before
giving it out to someone. She suspects an angry ex-boyfriend was
behind the traumatic episode.
Last week, US-based Tara Fitzgerald accused Mumbai's Riyaz Shaikh,
a representative of Dell Computers, of stealing her nude pictures
while helping her sort out her computer system. Shaikh made an amateur
porn website and posted the photos on it. Then, after insisting it was
the handiwork of her boyfriend, he told her he could remove the page
if she provided him with a laptop for use at home. Already
disturbed by the sequence of events, a
gullible Tara followed his advice and
shipped the laptop to Shaikh. But
around the same time, suspicious
amounts suddenly appeared on
her credit card. Shaikh had accessed her details and charged her
card for several purchases. Dell has confirmed Shaikh is no longer a
representative of the firm. But he probably still has a copy of her
photos.
Preeti and Tara are not the only ones facing a problem like this.
Nor do such instances only hound women. Pratap, a 34-year-old
insurance agent in Kolkata, found himself at the receiving end of a
barrage of abusive and threatening e-mails after someone posted nasty
comments about certain religions on an internet forum. Recently,
Delhi-based college student Aashish Awasthi found that someone had
hacked into his e-mail account, sent out lewd messages to his entire
contact list, dispatching a very long, graphic and disturbing
'confession' to his girlfriend. Though he would like to believe that
the perpetrator is a stranger, late at night, before he falls asleep,
all kinds of people — ex-girlfriends, love rivals, acquaintances,
friends — become suspects.
Putting up someone's name and number on sleazy www pages is the
modern equivalent of 'for-a-good-time-call...' messages often found
scribbled on men's bathrooms, historic monuments and public transport,
says Niyam Bhushan, a Delhi-based internet safety expert. "But, of
course, you know 'Nisha' couldn't have written her contact details in
the men's loo at the mall. When posted online, though, messages like
this can be very believable and dangerous simply because millions
across the
world, including your neighbours, can see it."
Bhushan calls this menace "proxy cyberstalking", a phenomenon
where revenge seekers — former lovers, frustrated colleagues, wronged
employees — involve perfect strangers in their attacks on people they
wouldn't dare face in the real world. "It seems juvenile, but you just
don't know how far it will go. Apart from the trauma and distress,
people can get hurt too," he says. "With stuff like geotagging and
live maps, people can even find out your exact location at any given
time. It can be downright scary."
Sociologist Aarti Kalra believes that anonymity on the internet is
the primary lure for cyber-stalkers. "The web gives people an
opportunity to be faceless — an individual may seem perfectly sweet
and nice in real life, but he could be a creep under the shroud of the
web, where he or she can be sure that no one knows him or his real
identity. Technology is making stalking easier, faster and nameless.
Now, with smartphones and other handheld devices becoming so
commonplace, people don't have the time to cool off after they have
had a fight with someone. A man could be posting weird things about
his ex-girlfriend when he is drunk at a bar the evening after the
break-up. The immediacy of these gadgets encourages people to act
before they think."
Nearly 10 years after the passage of the IT Act, response to
online harassment is still slow. Though provisions of the Act
addressed offences such as tampering with computer source documents,
hacking into protected system and publication of obscene information,
it did not mention typical crimes like cyber stalking, morphing
someone's faces on nude bodies and mailjacking. The Act was amended in
2008, but it did not directly deal with the issue of online stalking.
The problem is classified as an "intrusion on the privacy or modesty
of an individual". And if the stalking is done only to annoy the
victim, and does not lead to serious offences like sexual crimes or
identity theft, it is bailable.
Amit Kr Singh, a Supreme Court lawyer, believes laws are in place
to help those harassed online. Citing how the Mumbai police recently
approached Orkut to trace a person who had defamed a girl on the site
— in fact, they even managed to secure a landmark deal with the
Canada-based company which promised to share IP addresses and help
arrest those posting objectionable content about others — he says that
web firms usually divulge details of offenders when approached by the
law.
Singh says, "Using any web site usually involves leaving tracks in
the form of an IP address, which can be traced back to an internet
service provider and the stalker. Under most circumstances, a warrant
is required to obtain that information from an online service, so
filing a police report is crucial. The victim should take a print of
the offensive content before contacting the site's administrators to
get it removed. Physical evidence helps in cases like these."
But law enforcement has a difficult time keeping up with online
miscreants. According to Sailesh Tiwari, an internet expert in Delhi,
cyber-stalkers are quick to develop technology to counter police
measures. "A cyber stalker takes steps to remain anonymous. In fact,
many cyber stalkers spend a great deal of time online and are aware of
the latest in technology. They understand that their IP is encoded in
everything they do online, so they have found ways of actually
spoofing or masking them. Software like Anonymizer and MixMaster can
wipe out someone's electronic identification information and
reallocate it to an anonymous ID. To add to these, IPmasking sites and
anonymous proxy servers are a dime a dozen on the net. By chaining
together a few of these, an offender can create a complicated trail
for police to track," he says.
Watchdog website WiredSafety.com estimates there are more than 250
million people online at any given time, and 1.3 million stalkers surf
the internet with them. The numbers are huge and India has to revamp
its cyber laws to tackle the menace. Though police cyber cells
have opened in most major cities, Indian
cops, by and large, are not trained to
track and apprehend this breed of
criminals. The time for it, however, has come.
•
WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE CYBERSTALKED
The abusive ad or post must be brought to the notice of the site
administrators. It's important to contact the police — ideally the
cyber crimes cell — as soon as possible. Keeping detailed printouts
and other evidence helps build a case
Do not to respond to the abusive post on the internet. Not only could
it divulge your own IP address location, such contacts, experts say,
also encourage the stalker
Change your passwords often and avoid publishing your phone number,
postal or e-mail address and instant-messaging id on social networking
sites. Regularly Google search your name and phone number
PROXY WAR
In 2001, Manish Kathuria was arrested by the Delhi Police for
impersonating Ritu Kohli on the MIRC chat service. It was claimed to
be India's first case of cyberstalking, with Kathuria charged under
Section 509 of the Indian Penal Code for "outraging the modesty" of
his victim. Having appropriated her name, he "used obscene and
obnoxious language", distributed her home telephone number and invited
callers to "talk dirty''
In 2003, 51-year-old Pranab Mitra, a former executive of Gujarat
Ambuja Cement, was arrested for posing as a woman and seducing an Abu
Dhabi-based man online. He even managed to extort Rs 96 lakh from his
victim. Mitra posed as a woman and trapped VR Ninawe in a
''cyber-relationship'', sending emotional messages and indulging in
online sex. 'Rita Basu' eventually committed suicide and Ninawe was
made to pay, literally, for it
Last month in the US, a man was sentenced to 60 years in prison for
using a fake Craigslist ad to encourage men to rape his former
girlfriend. Jebidiah James Stipe pretended to be the woman and posted
an ad saying she wanted someone to break into her house and fulfill a
rape fantasy. The attacker, Ty Oliver McDowell, is also serving a
60-year sentence
In yet another case, a young American kept a check on the webcam of
his female victim. He used LogMeIn and an illegal webcam spying
application to get access to the victim's laptop, taking over 20,000
photos using its integrated webcam — including some of the lady naked
in her apartment. The police could not determine whether the photos
had been distributed or sold