To tackle the issue of cyber crimes, CIDs (Criminal Investigation Departments) of various cities opened up Cyber Crime Cells in different cities. The Information Technology Act of India states clearly that when cybercrime has been committed, it has global jurisdiction. and hence a complaint can be filed at any cyber cell.

Cybercrime can be defined as a crime or an unlawful act where the computer is used either as a tool, a target or both. In other terms, cyber crimes can be defined as unauthorized access to some computer system without the permission of rightful owner or place of criminal activity and include everything from online cracking to denial of service attacks. Some examples of cybercrime include phishing, spoofing, DoS (Denial of Service) attack, credit card fraud, online transaction fraud, cyber defamation, child pornography, etc.

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This answer intends to help the victim or potential victim to minimize possible harm by the activities of the accused, and how to file Cyber crime complaint online in India.

First of all, there is a special law, IT Act (Informational Technology Act 2000) that covers the definition and punishment for cybercrime. The Information Technology Act, 2000 (also known as ITA-2000, or the IT Act) is an Act of the Indian Parliament (No 21 of 2000) notified on 17 October 2000. It is the primary law in India dealing with cybercrime and electronic commerce.

People commit an offence under cybercrime for many reasons, and Indian police are not competent enough to curb these crimes, however, the Indian government has taken key measures to address serious cyber crimes recently, setting up separate special cyber cell police. Cybercriminal are trained and educated professional who commit crime for economic theft, such as ATM theft, Credit Card Fraud, hacking diplomatic accounts for cross country rivalry, and on the other side, people who are not trained but having limited access to the victim bank or email account, hack the account of the victim in order to blackmail them or to take revenge. Not all crimes that seem cybercrime at its face values are an offence under the Information Technology act. for Example, if husband shares his OTP (One Time Password) during internet banking transaction with his wife, and then amount get deposited to the account of a wife, it is not a crime, but a consensual transaction.

This is the loophole that cybercriminal also uses, they give an attractive proposal to the victim, and then obtain OTP from the victim and initiate a fraudulent transaction. In this event, banks withdraw from their responsibility, and police lack sufficient knowledge to initiate actions in this regards. Sometimes the disputed amount is too low that, police find no motivation to act accordingly low. The victim has no idea how to use technology and assistance to recover his losses or book accused and send him to prison and prosecute him.

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www.ChintalessNagrik.com (Reg. NGO) provides the following tips to the victim as soon as they realize cybercrime has happened to them;

1. Do not make any changes or alter the crime scene, or for example, if someone tried to hack your email or send you a suspicious email, do not delete it, do not change it all. keep it as it is in original condition.

2. If possible create separate email ID, Account, and change password for the previously compromised email account.

3. Take screenshot, and photos and video with mobile of compromised email or online account.

4. Make a list, what is compromised.

5. List the possible accused name and why do you think they might have done it? what would they gain through this act?

6. Write down the email ID of a person who is the sender and your email ID with the time and date it is received.

7. Email Header is important to track the IP of the accused, during the police investigation, hence do not temper with an original email sent to you, from accused.

Steps to Be Taken to File Cyber Crime Complaint with Police

1. Write down the time, date of the email you have received email or your email was hacked, or other cybercrime committed by the accused with you.

2. Keep the complaint short, focused and mention facts.

3. Send a Complaint to the Commissioner of PoliSuperintendentendent of Police in your city, giving head “Cyber Crime Cell” by post.

4. You can send the complaint by Post or private courier, retain tracking receipt.

5. Wait for 10 days for police call for a statement, if you receive no response, write an RTI and ask the status of your complaint. You should receive a reply of RTI in maximum 30 days. Post to that, you are entitled to receive free information and financial compensation.

6. Refrain from filing a complaint at multiple stages, as you should get work done through the police department who is competent to take actions in your case, however, when they fail to do so, RTI is the most effective tool. Thereafter, you can file a complaint with a superior police officer or complaint with the vigilant department, for non-action on your complaint.

7. If your complaint pertains to pornography, blackmailing, something very personal or defamatory, you are advised to get assistance from NGO: www.ChintalessNagrik.com. You can also hide your identity, and file complaint globally online.

8. Police once initiate an investigation in your complaint, they will call you for your statement and then the cyber expert may inspect your computer, mobile or laptop or even server to find the compromised source and track accused, to book him under IT Act and Indian Penal Code, as applicable.

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Case Study

We received a complaint from Anita (Name Changed) from Bangalore, and she said someone is sending her emails with her private photos and demand her nude video. She is working with a reputed company and recently got engaged with Pranay (name changed), The accused sent a few of her private photos to her Facebook and Instagram friends using her friends’ list. She was frightened and made a decision to make nude video and share it with the accused. However, her boyfriend approached us and we immediately approached commissioner office, Bangalore, and share this incident and asked for immediate action.

We did not share the details of the victim and photos which was shared by the accused, however, we shared links, emails and IP address that our investigator submitted after looking into technical details. Cyber Expert find it easy to track accused as we collected IP details in no time, which saved their time, and they tracked down the location of the accused and arrested him. FIR was registered but not posted in public. We ensured the media not to reveal the name of the victim. It was later found in the investigation, that there were two accused from university computer lab where Anita used to study and she logged in to the computer but forgot to log out. This negligence exposed her account, details and personal photos stored in email. Accused then started blackmailing and defaming her.

Due to immediate intervention and police action and mentoring this case, we have been able to assist the victim to secure her identity, reputation and now she is living good life, and she has implemented all security measures to maintain privacy on social media accounts, and she now use OTP based security system to log in to her email.

This article was originally written on Quora here. If you have more question on How to Register Cyber Crime Complaint in India? or want to file a complaint online without headache of procedures, visit www.http://ja-old.local/project-karnav/ or WhatsApp on +91 79903 16164 or call.