FRAUDS COMMITTED WITH THE HELP OF COMPUTERS

Computer Related Frauds

There is nothing known as computer fraud. If there is any error during the input of data it is
bound to give a wrong output. Even a programmer who develops a program, however expert he
may be in his field but his program may also contain errors .Computer fraud is a fraud related to
information technology, electronic commerce, etc.Computer fraud also known as “cyber fraud”,
is increasing rapidly with the increase in use of internet by the people.

There are various types of computer frauds [also known as cyber frauds] which are follows:

1. Hackers [Hacking].
2. Viruses.
3. Pornography.
4. Fraud.
5. Phreakers.
6. Pedophiles.
7. Harassment.
8. Data fiddling
9. Crackers
10. Violation of privacy, etc.

Some of the above mentioned cyber frauds are explained in brief

1. Hacking
Section 66 Clause (1) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 defines hacking as
follows:
“Whoever with the intent to cause or knowing that he is likely to cause wrongful loss or
damage to the public or any person destroys or deletes or alters any information residing
in a computer resource or diminishes its value or utility or affects it injurious by any
means, commits hacking”.

2. Viruses
Presently, the most notorious type of computer fraud is creation of computer viruses. A
virus usually affects numerous computer systems and usually is transferred from one
system to another. A virus may occur through transfer of disks or any other kind of
storage devices. A virus can be in variety of form.One of the less harmful type Others
are of dangerous kinds which can corrupt data.

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 3. Pornography
It is most disgraceful type of computer /cyber fraud. It is a type of fraud which creates a
very bad impression on the users mind. It is completely related to nudity and obscene
form of electronic information. It tends to corrupt the minds of youngsters and teenagers
who are most likely to read, see or hear the matter contained in it. The IT Act, 2000
provides punishment for this type of fraud.

4. Frauds :
Fraud is defined as any behaviour by which one person intends to gain a dishonest
advantage over another. In other words fraud is an act or omission which is intended to
cause wrongful gain to one person & wrongful loss to the other either by way of
concealment of facts or otherwise.

5. PHREAKERS:
Phreaking is a slang term coined to describe the activity of a subculture of people who
study, experiment with, or explore telecommunication systems; such as equipment and
systems connected to public telephone networks. As telephone networks have become
computerized, phreaking has become closely linked with computer hacking. This is
sometimes called the H/P culture (with H standing for Hacking and P standing for
Phreaking).
The term "phreak" is a portmanteau of the words "phone" and "freak", and may also refer
to the use of various audio frequencies to manipulate a phone system.

6. PEDOPHILES:
1. A sexual feeling of desire directed towards children in general.
2. Overt sexual acts directed towards children.
3. an adult whose primary sexual interest is in children; some professionals make a
differentiation between a pedophile, whose sexual partner of choice is a prepubertal child,
and a hebephile, who is aroused by adolescents.

7. HARASSMENT:

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 Harassment covers a wide range of offensive behaviour. It is commonly understood as
behaviour intended to disturb or upset. In the legal sense, it is behaviour which is found
threatening or disturbing. Harassment is words, conduct, or actions directed at a specific
person that annoys, alarms, or causes a lot of emotional distress for no legitimate
purpose.

8. DATA FIDDLING:

Data Fiddling is the changing of data before or during entry into the computer system.
Examples include forging or counterfeiting documents used for data entry and exchanging
valid disks and tapes with modified replacements. This kind of an attack involves altering the
raw data just before it is processed by a computer and then changing it back after the
processing is completed.

9. CRACKERS:
A computer professional who gains illegal access into computers by hacking passwords is
known as a cracker. Instead of a hacker – cracker dichotomy, they give more emphasis to
a spectrum of different categories, such as white hat (ethical hacking), grey hat, black hat
and script kiddie.

 White hat
A white hat hacker breaks security for non-malicious reasons, for instance testing their
own security system. This type of hacker enjoys learning and working with computer
systems, and consequently gains a deeper understanding of the subject. Such people
normally go on to use their hacking skills in legitimate ways, such as becoming security
consultants. The word 'hacker' originally included people like this, although a hacker may
not be someone into security.
 Grey hat
A grey hatted hacker is a hacker of ambiguous ethics and/or borderline legality, often
frankly admitted.
 Black hat

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A black hat hacker, sometimes called "cracker", is someone who breaks computer
security without authorization or uses technology (usually a computer, phone system or
network) for vandalism, credit card fraud, identity theft, piracy, or other types of illegal
activity.
 Script kiddie
A script kiddie is a non-expert who breaks into computer systems by using pre-packaged
automated tools written by others, usually with little understanding. These are the
outcasts of the hacker community.

10.Violation of privacy
It is a concept related to an individual .When an individual wants to keep a
data or information hidden and for his or own private use is said have kept it
private. Most common eg.is a person having a private e-mail a/c.Every
individual has a right to decide which kind of information he/she wishes to
share with others and which information he/she is willing to keep private. It is
most disturbing and destructive for a person whose privacy has been violated.
In fact, the Information Technology Act, 2000 provides punishment for
violation of privacy which is 2years imprisonment or fine which may extend
to 1 lakh rupees or both.