Government shirks Cyber Crime Enforcement

Delhi Police celebrates its Raising Day New Delhi

Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil on Wednesday honoured policemen here to mark the force's raising day celebrations. The nearly 60,000 people strong force, touted as the largest metropolitan contingent in the world, came into being in 1912. The force has in the past year been lauded for its crackdown on a range of economic offences, busting terrorist hideouts besides making new forays into cyber crime. Patil stressed the need for stringent check on cyber crime, which now includes computer hacking and rendering help to terrorist organisations. "Cyber crime is one of the crimes but there are more grievous crimes. We have to think about them and do something about them," he said.

India has in 2000 joined an elite club of 12 nations with digital laws after its passed the Information Technology Act, which enable police to combat cyber crimes and civil authorities to legally validate deals done on the Internet. Delhi Police Commissioner Krishna Kant Paul hailed his men for their impeccable record in ensuring law and order with minimal hazards in the capital, particularly its success in cracking terrorist hideouts. "Delhi police has made big achievements in the past years. They have nabbed hardcore criminals and more than that have been extremely successful in curbing terrorists. There was no breach of security last year implying there is improvement in the security situation in Delhi and all of this is because of the efforts of the officers and soldiers of the Delhi police," he said.

Credit Card fraud is so easy

Fraud expert becomes victim of credit card crime
By John Leyden, Published Friday 27th May 2005 10:06 GMT

CNP (Cardholder Not Present) fraud in the UK has grown nearly 50 times between 1994 and 2003 to £116.4 million.

The founder of an anti-fraud website has himself become the victim of credit card fraud. Andrew Goodwill, managing director of Early Warning UK, a scheme set up to help retailers avoid credit card fraud, is down $600 (£329) after crooks used his credit card to pay for services online.

Egg, which has issued Goodwill with a new card, is investigating the suspected fraud. “People must look at their statements regularly whether they’re on paper or online, because the sooner you spot fraud the better, and the less likely that the consumer will have to pay,” Goodwill said.

Far from being embarrassed by becoming a victim of a credit card fraud, Goodwill reckons his case illustrates the ease of card misuse. “This can happen to anyone. I was shocked when I found that someone had spent $600 on one of my cards to pay for online poker in the States. This shows that no-one is immune whether they’re the head of a major bank or a fraud prevention company,” he said.

The card number that was copied was for an online account with Egg which Goodwill took out for the free balance transfer facility. “The statements are online and because I needed a password I just didn’t look. It wasn’t until I queried another matter on my normal current account that I saw that the monthly minimum payment to Egg had doubled.”

“It is so easy for criminals to generate credit card numbers by downloading special software that provides them with the means to produce 50,000 numbers in just 30 seconds. No-one can find the fraudsters, and they get the goods without having to pay for them.”