Women, be alert. Cyber Revenge is the new cyber crime

Women, be alert!

The current state of cyber revenge can be portrayed as:

1. In 2015, a total of 11,592 such cases were recorded.
2. In 2017, the number of cyber revenge crimes went up-to 21,796.
3. In 2017, the total cases of sexual exploitation were 1460 - 714 cases out of anger, 628 cases out of personal grudge.
4. In 2018, the number leaped to 27,248 cases out of which 3076 were of cyber revenge.
5. In 2018, Uttar Pradesh had the highest number of cases and Maharashtra ranked second.

Cyber Revenge in simpler words a vengeance sought online. The concept of cyber revenge has become one of the greatest threats to commoners in recent times. It is the distribution of sexually explicit image or video of individuals without their consent. More vividly it has led to the defamination of young girls and women in general. The doctored photos are being uploaded, followed by numerous monetary frauds, cyber revenge ranks second in number of registered cases while in some states. Cyber Revenge crimes top in list.

One & a half years ago, a Kolkata woman was similarly victimized. Strangers started visiting her house at every odd hours. Men of different ages started wondering outside her home. On being asked as to why they were there, they replied, "It was you who gave the address. Now stop making me wait outside & let me in. You will get the amount you desire." The lady was completely clueless. But then a young man explained that her picture and phone number was advertised in an escort service. On connecting to them, they are providing the time to report and hence these people reach here.

On accessing to the website and watching the advertisement, the lady & her family were completely devastated. It was not just that lady but her sister-in-law's pictures were similarly used. In extreme shock and shame, she didn't understand what to do. CCTV cameras were installed outside the house. Hoardings of strict prohibition were put but nothing came into use. Later on, the lady lodged a complaint to the LalBazar Cyber Police station and prompt action was taken by the detective department, understanding the graveness of the situation. Initially, a boy from Kolkata was suspected. On being interrogated, he said that this family is completely unknown to him and he did this on being asked by a female friend. It was then found that this friend is that lady's neighbour and she did this because of disputes related to ownership of land.

During this Lock down, on 17th April a woman committed suicide in Salarpur, Noida. The reason behind this was not getting enough likes on her TikTok videos. Previously, a 17 year old boy jumped off a 11 storey building because of the same reason. This immense willing to gain quick fame has reached to the extent of taking away their lives.

What are the ways in which these cyber revenges are taken?

1. Publicizing the intimate videos or pictures on breaking up a relationship.
2. Because of different disparity occurring in a marriage, the husband leaks a video hiding himself but revealing his wife.
3. Secretly recording videos to blackmail.
4. Editing pictures indecently.

According to sources, many people hide away from this. Rather they try pacify the situation by offering money. Mr Sengupta, CEO at ISOEH, has come across numerous requests from such victims over last few years. He has informed that numerous apps & websites have been created where people can quickly convert a normal picture of a women to a nude picture, free of cost. In that website if any picture of a woman is sent, within seconds a nude picture of that same woman is produced and presented. In this way many have been trapped. Using this, women have been blackmailed. Hence the blackmailer doesn't need to do anything by himself, just an app does the entire work.

An officer of Kolkata Police Cyber Crime claims that it is impossible to count the number of cyber crime taking place because most of them do not reach the police station. The victims have brought in a certain amount of awareness in the city but in the villages neither the people nor the police are aware of this but in the forthcoming days, cybercrime would become the greatest threat to humanity.

Mr Sandeep Sengupta has shared his views in this & has said that there is actually no possible way to stop this. Only thing one can do is sharing pictures and videos among trustworthy people.

Mr Muralidhar Sharma said that people should be utmost careful about cyber revenge. Personal pictures must not be circulated. Even after that if any such situation arises, one must immediately information the police.

Some of the steps recommended to keep ourselves safe from cyber revenge:

1. Be it between lovers or husband & wife, there is no need to record their intimacy in forms of mobile video or pictures, saved in Mobile SD-card. Any video or photo can be recovered from mobile memory using mobile forensic. Even a formatted mobile is not safe.
2. In social media, pictures must strictly be shared among friends and family, not PUBLIC or "Friends of Friends". In this regard, there is an option to control as to who can see your pictures and that should be used.
3. It should be kept in mind that no unknown people on social media gets a reach of your pictures.
4. It is better not to respond to the different kinds of challenges that are being conducted on the social media. These photo challenges are used to harvest images which are later morphed into porn.
5. Just for some likes or comments, one should not become completely ignorant.
6. If any sort of personal pictures are shared between partners & if any kind of disputes occur between them, police help must be taken for immediate actions.
7. For any case where you face blackmail, contact police immediately. The culprit will get caught in 48 hours.

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