http://www.cybervictims.edu.tf/
No, I am not going to re-run the famous story, but I adopted the “legendary” title with a word replaced by mine, to tell my readers a rather pathetic story of cyber crime victims globally.
When a man or a woman is hit by an offender in the cyber space, the first common reaction is to “report” the incidence to one’s family or trusted friends. The post mortem of the offence begins when the effect of the harm seems to be very deep and hurtening………..and what are these situations? Mine , as well as my other friends’ (who are cyber crime experts) experiences say, that these situations include severe online bullying, stalking, impersonating and creation of fake porno-profiles, hacking ( well, by hacking I don’t mean to include official -website hacking, but hacking of personal email id), morphing , stealing and distributing personal informations ( again , not only economic , but *personal* as well) and off course , offline promotion of the online offences. Well, these are but a few examples of vast categories of offences that target ordinary individuals.
The next step of the aftermath of the offences generally results in encouraging the victim to contact the police to prevent further escalation of the victimization. In many cases, here begins the next episode of the victimization of the already victims. Even though many metro cities of developed as well as developing countries, do have police –offices equipped with efficient men and machines to deal with cyber offences, many easily approachable neighborhood police stations do not have such facilities. The question which many of you would ask is, why should an ordinary police station be approached when there are cyber police stations in the city? Hey, come on , if you stay in Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu and you get to see a “phishing incidence” which took a chunk of your bank balance ; or if you stay in Malda , West Bengal, and you find out a dirty Orkut /facebook profile of yours, you may straightaway enter the local police station to lodge the complaint . You ask “why”? And the answer could be :
a. you do not have a separate cyber police cell in your own city;
b. you may have lodged an online complaint , but you have not received a “quick response” from the main cyber crime cell of your state. In between, the harasser has gone one step ahead to publicize you in worst manners;
c. You do not know the difference between ordinary police stations and cyber crime cells.
Further, even if the cyber harassment has occurred in the main metro city which boasts of a cyber crime cell, the victim may run from pillar to post to lodge the complaint as the jurisdiction- issue will insist that you first contact the local police station for reporting the harassment.
Saddening for a country which has millions of internet users ..isnt it? But wait.. don’t blame “Indian system”. You may get to see these incidences in other parts of the world too.
To give a few examples …..
i. A male victim of cyber harassment goes to the local police station in the greater part of Calcutta; he insists that his complaint must be registered as it has been ‘tagged” as a “criminal offence” in the Information Technology law. The officer in charge at first turns a deaf ear to his pleadings , and then suddenly realizes the characteristics of the offence is a bit difference from the regular offences he is dealing every day. He asks the victim to come back a day later for further discussion.. Note, he didn’t register any case.
ii. A female victim of cyber harassment in the northern part of India, got so disturbed by the nonchalant attitude of the local police, that she decided to never to face the police again.
iii. In an interior part of Southern England, a middle aged woman reports to the police about ongoing severe bully by some of her ‘unwanted virtual visitors”. When the local police wants to check out those public bullying messages, they were perplexed to see no “evidence”, ( it is obvious that after the harassers came to know that the woman is going to the police, they had removed the thread for the time being) .The police asked the woman “ do you believe in ghosts?”
iv. An American internet user got a life time suggestion from the police of her area: ‘stay awake and don’t dream’….
Do these incidents look similar to one of your own real life experiences? Well, possibility can not be ruled out. These distressing incidences run in almost every country even if they boast of well drafted internet security laws. I find a very simple reason behind this upsetting trend: the local police stations still treat internet crimes and harassment as one among the regular harassment crimes; the officials need to be well trained to handle cyber harassments; and over all, both the parties (the one who is complaining and the one who is receiving the complaint) must give a patient hearing to each other. Last but not the least, the victim must remember that “prevention is always better than cure”. Hence do not forget the wise men’s warnings before you depart with your informations in the internet.
Have a safe journey in the cyber space.
A note from the writer: The views expressed in this blog are exclusively mine. Some of the incidents depicted here are real life experiences of my friends'(who preferred to be anonymous) , who gave their kind permission to publish the experiences for spreading general awareness. I do not mean to hurt any officials. But still then, if any officer of the Police department of any country is hurt by this blog, I deeply apologise. It is not intentional and I have practised my fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression.To end with, I sincerely thank Jai, my husband, and my friends in the cyber crime-management field,Jayne, President of WHOA (www.haltabuse.org),Neelabh, Sanjay,"Cyber Cop"...... to name a few of them, who spoke about their own perceptions with me in friendly conversations as well as in their blogs and write ups.
.
No, I am not going to re-run the famous story, but I adopted the “legendary” title with a word replaced by mine, to tell my readers a rather pathetic story of cyber crime victims globally.
When a man or a woman is hit by an offender in the cyber space, the first common reaction is to “report” the incidence to one’s family or trusted friends. The post mortem of the offence begins when the effect of the harm seems to be very deep and hurtening………..and what are these situations? Mine , as well as my other friends’ (who are cyber crime experts) experiences say, that these situations include severe online bullying, stalking, impersonating and creation of fake porno-profiles, hacking ( well, by hacking I don’t mean to include official -website hacking, but hacking of personal email id), morphing , stealing and distributing personal informations ( again , not only economic , but *personal* as well) and off course , offline promotion of the online offences. Well, these are but a few examples of vast categories of offences that target ordinary individuals.
The next step of the aftermath of the offences generally results in encouraging the victim to contact the police to prevent further escalation of the victimization. In many cases, here begins the next episode of the victimization of the already victims. Even though many metro cities of developed as well as developing countries, do have police –offices equipped with efficient men and machines to deal with cyber offences, many easily approachable neighborhood police stations do not have such facilities. The question which many of you would ask is, why should an ordinary police station be approached when there are cyber police stations in the city? Hey, come on , if you stay in Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu and you get to see a “phishing incidence” which took a chunk of your bank balance ; or if you stay in Malda , West Bengal, and you find out a dirty Orkut /facebook profile of yours, you may straightaway enter the local police station to lodge the complaint . You ask “why”? And the answer could be :
a. you do not have a separate cyber police cell in your own city;
b. you may have lodged an online complaint , but you have not received a “quick response” from the main cyber crime cell of your state. In between, the harasser has gone one step ahead to publicize you in worst manners;
c. You do not know the difference between ordinary police stations and cyber crime cells.
Further, even if the cyber harassment has occurred in the main metro city which boasts of a cyber crime cell, the victim may run from pillar to post to lodge the complaint as the jurisdiction- issue will insist that you first contact the local police station for reporting the harassment.
Saddening for a country which has millions of internet users ..isnt it? But wait.. don’t blame “Indian system”. You may get to see these incidences in other parts of the world too.
To give a few examples …..
i. A male victim of cyber harassment goes to the local police station in the greater part of Calcutta; he insists that his complaint must be registered as it has been ‘tagged” as a “criminal offence” in the Information Technology law. The officer in charge at first turns a deaf ear to his pleadings , and then suddenly realizes the characteristics of the offence is a bit difference from the regular offences he is dealing every day. He asks the victim to come back a day later for further discussion.. Note, he didn’t register any case.
ii. A female victim of cyber harassment in the northern part of India, got so disturbed by the nonchalant attitude of the local police, that she decided to never to face the police again.
iii. In an interior part of Southern England, a middle aged woman reports to the police about ongoing severe bully by some of her ‘unwanted virtual visitors”. When the local police wants to check out those public bullying messages, they were perplexed to see no “evidence”, ( it is obvious that after the harassers came to know that the woman is going to the police, they had removed the thread for the time being) .The police asked the woman “ do you believe in ghosts?”
iv. An American internet user got a life time suggestion from the police of her area: ‘stay awake and don’t dream’….
Do these incidents look similar to one of your own real life experiences? Well, possibility can not be ruled out. These distressing incidences run in almost every country even if they boast of well drafted internet security laws. I find a very simple reason behind this upsetting trend: the local police stations still treat internet crimes and harassment as one among the regular harassment crimes; the officials need to be well trained to handle cyber harassments; and over all, both the parties (the one who is complaining and the one who is receiving the complaint) must give a patient hearing to each other. Last but not the least, the victim must remember that “prevention is always better than cure”. Hence do not forget the wise men’s warnings before you depart with your informations in the internet.
Have a safe journey in the cyber space.
A note from the writer: The views expressed in this blog are exclusively mine. Some of the incidents depicted here are real life experiences of my friends'(who preferred to be anonymous) , who gave their kind permission to publish the experiences for spreading general awareness. I do not mean to hurt any officials. But still then, if any officer of the Police department of any country is hurt by this blog, I deeply apologise. It is not intentional and I have practised my fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression.To end with, I sincerely thank Jai, my husband, and my friends in the cyber crime-management field,Jayne, President of WHOA (www.haltabuse.org),Neelabh, Sanjay,"Cyber Cop"...... to name a few of them, who spoke about their own perceptions with me in friendly conversations as well as in their blogs and write ups.
.
