Pune: Recently, a woman lodged a case against her husband for allegedly creating her fake account on a social media site and posting her photograph. The man did not stop there and he also uploaded derogatory comments on the fake site. The woman lodged a case of defamation and under the Information Technology Act at Samarth police station.
In another case, a woman lodged a case of extortion against a man who had met her through a popular dating mobile application. The man allegedly threatened the woman and asked her for Rs 10,000 for not sharing her intimate videos on the Internet.
The man had also asked the woman to transfer Rs 36,000 through Paytm. The woman did as instructed by the man who had assured that he will marry her. As cases of sharing pictures and videos of women are rising on the social media sites and the Internet, city police officials have issued a caution.
Cyber experts have also pointed out the need for women to differentiate between the real world and virtual world of the Internet so that they are not cheated. Crimes like matrimonial fraud, cyberstalking and morphing and women falling prey to such incidents, where pictures and videos are shared on the Internet and social media site are on the rise.
Speaking about such cases, Vinayak Lashkar, Assistant Professor of Sociology at TC College, Baramati said that in our society, if a man has to harm a woman, he tries to demean her in public. “To have a good character is very important for a woman and a man tries to exploit women on that aspect. It is important that women should be cautious about such things. So more care should be taken while dealing with strangers. Such crimes are a manifestation of underlying patriarchy in our society,” he added.
Cyber expert Chirayu Mahajan of ANA Cyber Forensic said that these days, men and women both are victims of honey traps. “Many Indian dating applications have no details of registration and so we are not aware if we are dealing with a good person or bad person. Same goes with many matrimonial sites, even though some matrimonial websites have started verifying Aadhar details there is no surety that the person is good,” he added.
Another cyber expert Anil Raj of Cybervault Securities System Private Limited said that there is a need to understand the virtual world of the Internet. Technology can certainly play a big role in bringing down such crimes. “We have not made strict rules of such mobile apps which are dealing with the day-to-day lives of people. The government should immediately blacklist mobile apps causing harm to people. A strong political will can address such crimes and that is the need of the hour,” added Raj.
