cheating by personation comparison between real and virtual world

8/9/2019 cheating by personation comparison between real and virtual world

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CHEATING BY PERSONATION-A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN PHYSICAL AND

VIRTUAL WORLD

Submitted by:

V. VINEETH REDDY

2013129

3rd

SEMESTER

DAMODARM SANJIVAYYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

V!"#$"%"&'"(

N)*+(,+r 201


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ACNOWLEDGEMENT/

I would like to express my gratitude towards our Vice-Chancellor Prof. . !. ". "haga#ath

$umar Sir% for the pro#iding me an opportunity to impro#e my skills of writing and research

through the form of pro&ects. I would specially like to thank our Indian penal code associate

professor 's. (andini c.p 'a)am for the support she has pro#ided me in completion of the

pro&ect successfully.


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TABLE O CONTENTS

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INTRODUCTION

Personation has been explained in the oxford dictionary as @pretending to be someone else%

especially for fraudulent purposesA/. *he criminal legal dictionary defines the same as the act

of assuming the character of another without lawful authority% and% in such character doing

something to his pre&udice% or to the pre&udice of another% without his will or consent.0

So% when a person is acting or beha#ing to be someone else and does anything in such name

with fraudulent intentions and to cause such harm to the person who is so represented to him%

then the act may be called personation. nder the Indian Penal Code% the word personation

has been used in the Sections / but has not been defined in

any of the Sections.

Cheating by personation is defined under the section 6/;3of the Code. It states explains the

offence is committed whether the indi#idual personated is a real or imaginary person. 6

So in order to understand the definition gi#en in this section it becomes necessary to know

the exact meaning of the term cheating as defined under the code% which can be found in the

section 6/88. ccording to this section dishonest concealment of facts is a deception within

the meaning of this section.

INGREDIENTS O CHEATING/

1http:BBwww.oxforddictionaries.comBdefinitionBenglishBpersonate% last #iewed on 00-?>-/6

2http:BBlegal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.comBpersonation% last #iewed on 00-?>-/6

3 416. person is said to cheat by personation if he cheats by pretending to be some other person% or byknowingly substituting one person for another% or representing that he or any other person is a person other thanhe or such other person really is.

4http:BBbdlaws.minlaw.go#.bdBsectionsDdetail.phpEidF//GsectionsDidF30>0% last #iewed on 00-?>-

14

5 415. Cheating.—hoe#er% by decei#ing any person% fraudulently or dishonestly induces the person sodecei#ed to deli#er any property to any person% or to consent that any person shall retain any property% or intentionally induces the person so decei#ed to do or omit to do anything which he would not do or omit if hewere not so decei#ed% and which act or omission causes or is likely to cause damage or harm to that person in

body% mind% reputation or property% is said to @cheatA.


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*he primary ingredient for cheating is the accused must ha#e fraudulently or dishonestly

induced a person

r"d+'& )r d!$)'+!&/

*he words fraudulently and dishonestly are of huge importance here in this section. *hese

words actually induce the elements of the deception and dishonest intention thus we can state

that any wilful misrepresentation with intention to decei#e or defraud a person is called

cheating.

*he decei#ed should be induced to deli#er any property to any person or consent that any

person shall retain any property here the property can be anything it can be either mo#able

kind of property or immo#able kind of property and there is no rule that the property must

belong to the person decei#ed. 5ere in this section and section 60? properties can be anything

such as passport% deeds% hall ticket or any kind of certificates.

Javerchand chawla vs. state of Andhra Pradesh6 :

Facts: ccused though he is not owner of the shop recei#ed loan from the

complainant by saying that he is owner the shop. Complainant recei#ed cheHues from

the accused. *hose were bounced. In this case the court held that where accused got

loan on false representation to the complainant that he was the owner of the shop

which he was actually not and cheHues which were issued by the accused also

bounced thus here the offence related to cheating was made out

Held - in this case court held accused made a false representation which is considered

as cheating under section 6/; because the accused here ha#e the e#il intention and

carried out the act so he will liable.

Baboo khan vs state of uttar Pradesh7

6


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facts: here in this case the accused baboo khanJ who pretended or acted to be a

certain well known eye specialist i.e. baboo khan pretended to be 2r mohan lal who is

a #ery good eye specialist and induced the complainant KalimJ to allow him to

perform an operation on the eye of his /0 years old son

held : here in this case the court found the accused guilty and has been sentenced him

to > months along with the fine of rupees hundred and he later appealed it to higher

court but the decision was upheld

I'&+'&)'"/

ct should be committed by the wrong Ldoer intentionally if the act was not done

intentionally it does not amount to cheating

D"("4+/

*he decei#ed person should suffer any damage. 2amage could be anything such as harm in

body% mind% reputation or property by the deceitful act of the wrong doer.

Ram Prakash Sn!h vs. State of Bhar ":

Facts: *he accused was an officer in +IC. 5e introduced some fake +IC with a #iew

to attain promotion on the basis of inflated business. 5e took the defence that the

other person had not suffered any damage as such but here the court said that it should

be treated as the preparation for cheating and con#icted the accused.

Held: here in this case the court held that the accused though did not do harm to

anyone% he act will be treated as a preparation and he will be liable for preparation.

Abh#anand $shra vs. state of bhar %:

7 I />;/ ++ ;3>%/>;/ Cr.+.7.

8 Ram prakash singh vs. state of bihar, AIR 18 !1" #$$ 173

Abh%anan& 'ishra vs state of bihar, AIR 161 #$ 168


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Facts: here in this case the accused ha#e produced fake certificates and information to

the ni#ersity for appearing examinations conducted by a uni#ersity

Held: courts con#icted him under the section 60? and 8// of Indian Penal Code. +ater

courts held that the section 60? would not be attracted because there was no pecuniary

damage and here the courts also held that mere preparation would be an attempt. nd

courts also stated that until the person who is producing the certificates did not post

the fake certificates it would not be considered as an attempt under 8// but once he

posted the certificates it would be treated as an attempt

MENS REA/

'ens rea which means guilty intention is also another essential element in the concept of

cheating .the accused should possess the guilty intention. Intention and act should concur to

constitute a crime. 2ishonest concealment of facts is also treated as cheating.

&hnthaman vs d#aneshwar '(:

Facts: In this case the accused sold the property to the complainant which was

already mortgaged to another person .here the accused dishonestly concealed the factthat it was mortgaged and this was a clear cut cheating offence and

Held: *hus it was interpreted in this case was concealment of facts dishonestly is also

an offence of cheating

JUDICIAL PRONOUNCEMENT ON DISHONOUR O CHE5UES/

Jose)h vs Phl) *ose)h

''

: In case of &oseph #s. Philip &oseph% it was held that wherethe cheHue was issued by the drawer from the account which was closed in the year

/>>? when the account had been closed by him in />=< and the cheHue was

dishonoured no offence under section /3= of negotiable instruments act was made

out. 1ffence could also come within the pre#iew of section 60? of Indian penal code

1( $hinthamani vs. &%anesh)ar, 174 $r.*.+ 542 omba%

11 +oseph vs. hiip +oseph, AIR 2((1 /er.3((


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CHEATING BY PERSONATION/

Cheating by personation was defined under section 6/; of IPC it explains the cheating by

personation means if a person is said to be cheat by personation if he cheats by pretending to

be some other person% or by knowingly substituting/0 one person for another% or representing

that he or any other person is a person that he or such person really is

*he explanation of this section makes it clear that the indi#idual personated is either real or

imaginary Cheating by personating can be di#ided into two types. 1ne is real world and the

other is #irtual world. ,xamples for cheating by personating in real life are

• cheats by pretending to be a certain rich banker of the same name then is liable

under section 6/; of IPC.

• cheats by pretending to be "% the person who is deceased already then will be

held liable for cheat by personation

'ere personation will not attract punishment because there was no harm happened to the

society for example if buys a kilogram of tomato at #egetable market and on being asked

his name% he told that his name was "% it fulfils all the ingredients of personation but it is not punishable because there was no damage done. *hus personation is punishable only when

accused cheats/3

State v. )adam sn!h'+ % the high court of 'adhya Pradesh held that the accused cannot be

punished merely because he secured an employment by gi#ing out a fictitious name for

himself% court also held that but the accused in this case must pro#e that he didn)t secure this

&ob because of personation.

E'6)(+'& "')&$+r7! ,+'+8&/

12 #0bstit0ting means at or speak as a repaement

13 r./ ibh0te, .#.A iai rimina a) , 11 th e&ition, 2(12,eis eis

b0tter)oths In&ia,2((8

14 173, $r.*.+ 877 !'"


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R.$atameswara rao case',

Facts : *his is a #ery small case in this case the accused used the railway season ticket issued

in the name of different person and the accused pretended to be that person and

Held::*his falls under the section 6/; of IPC and the accused was found guilty and made

liable for his mistake because he was en&oying the another person)s benefit.1ne thing which

can be clearly deri#ed after analysing this case is one should be cheated first and the second

thing is he should be cheated by personation and then the accused will be liable

PERSONATION BY WITNESS/

In the case of bhka vs. em)eror '6 % the court held that one who gi#es false e#idence by

pretending to be some other person then the person would be liable under section />3 of the

code but not under cheating by personation

P+r!)'"&)' B+8)r+ P, S+r*+ C)((!!)'/

sushl kumar dutta vs. state'7 :

facts: the accused actually pretended to be a person belonging to scheduled caste and was

successful in getting into Indian administrati#e ser#ice% he got an appointment on basis of

false representation%

Held: here the courts con#icted him under section 6/; of IPC

15 157 $r.*.+ 44.

16 !1863" I om $ 8

17 185 $r.*.+ 148 !$A*"


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In another case of In re #. r"(" r")1:% similar to the facts laid in abo#e case here the accused

produced false certificates of engineering degree and got &ob in the public ser#ice

commission in appropriate cadre% courts held that he had committed cheating by personation.

P+r!)'"&)' B+8)r+ A P, S+r*"'&/

In case of #$"r"& r"( *. !&"&+19%

Facts: the accused was not the payee mentioned in the money orders but he fraudulently

misrepresented the postman and decei#ed him and made him belie#e that he was the payee%

the accused ha#e also produced fake identity cards to make postman belie#e that he was

payee%

Held: here in this case the accused was held liable under section 6/; of IPC i.e cheating by

personation

In another case )8 6"4"& N"r""' *. !&"&+20 %

Facts: the accused with the permission of the his brother went to post office and represented

him as his brother% signed in the name of his brother and bought money from post office%

held: he will not be liable because there was no e#il intention or intention to decei#e.

In case of R"( 6"! *!. !&"&+21%

Facts and held: accused here merely induced as an oath commissioner% by wrongful

identification% to attest an affida#it does not commit cheating by personation because% one

should do such kind of an act that would cause damage or harm to the other in body% mind%

18 16( $r.*.+ 1181

1 172, $r.*.+ 254 !*"

2( A.I.R. 167 A**.123.

21 A.I.R. 174 #$ 184


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CHEATING BY PERSONATION IN VIRTUAL WORLD/

(ow coming to cheating by personation in #irtual world the concept is #ery much similar to

the concept of cheating in real world but here the cheating happens on computer or any other

de#ice. *he law which deals with the cheating by personation in #irtual world is section ;; C

and ;; 208 of the Information *echnology ct 0??? i.e Punishment for identity theft and

punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource. So while dealing with

cheating by personation in #irtual world three aspects need to be present.

• It needs to be pro#ed that the person is cheated% here the word cheat must fulfil the

ingredients under IPC i.e. fraudulent or dishonest intention e#en if it is done in cyber

space

• It must be cheating by personation i.e. the person who is decei#ing must try to act or

pretend as another personJ

• Cheating by personation must be by using computer or any other electronic de#ice%

thus in this #irtual world the deceitful element must be carried out by computer.

*he third aspect is not present in cheating by personation in real world where as the third

aspect should be present in cheating by personation in #irtual world *hus section 6/; of IPC

deals with cheating by personation in physical world and the section 6/> of IPC deals with

the punishments for cheating by personation. ccording to this section the person may be

imprisoned up to 3 years or fine or may be both and section ;; d of information and

technology act deals with the cheating by personation in #irtual world. *his is the basic

difference between cheating by personation in real and #irtual world

1llustraton-

25 66-D. whoever by means of any communication device or computer resource cheatsby personation, sha be punished with imprisonment of either description for a termwhich may e!tend to three years and sha aso be iabe for "ne which may e!tend to

rupees one a#h


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e#ati recei#es an email that appears to ha#e been sent from a famous online shopping

website in India. ,mail promises her to an iPod at a discounted price if she pays s. 8?? as a

deposit amount. ttracted by the offer% she #isited a link specified in the email and it

redirected her to a webpage where she entered her net-banking username% password and other

information. In reality% the email as well as website was fake and her information is stolen

and misused. In#estigations re#ealed that the fake email and website was created by ohit.

5e would be liable under this section.

IDENTITY THET/

Identity Theft is a crime in which an impostor obtains key pieces of personal identifying

information (PII) such as Social Security numbers and drivers license numbers and usesthem for their own personal gain! This is called I" Theft!

Identity theft is the process wherein another person who is pretending to act as another person

with the dishonest intention% identity theft in the cyber world can be carried out in different

ways. Identity theft real name fraudJ is the taking of the #ictim)s identity to obtain money%

credit and debit cards from banks and retailers% apply for loans% establish accounts with some

other third companies% rent an apartment on #ictim)s identity% attain a &ob using the #ictim)s

identity. Criminals are using the #ictim)s identity to commit the crimes which are #arying

from traffic cases to serious crimes.

S&"4+! )8 Id+'&& T$+8&

*here are three stages of identity theft. ny identity theft case may include one or all of these

stages

A;!&)' )8 &$+ d+'&&/ It in#ol#es the acHuisition of the identity through theft% hacking%

redirecting or intercepting mail or by purchasing identifying information on the internet.

U!+ )8 &$+ d+'&&/ fter the acHuisition of the identity% the fraudster may use the identity to

commit another crime resulting in financial gain to him like misuse of the credit card

information to make online purchase% opening new accounts% sell the identities to others who

commit fraud. Sometime the stolen information may be used to harass the #ictim% like posting

of pornography or obscene material by fraudster posing himself as the #ictim.


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D!)*+r )8 &$+ &$+8&/ 'any cases of misuse of credit cards are disco#ered Huickly%

howe#er in some cases the #ictim of an identity theft may not e#en know how or when their

identity was stolen and theft may take ; months to se#eral years to come to the notice of the

#ictim. Study re#eals that the longer it takes to disco#er the theft% the greater the loss incurred

by the #ictim.

TYPES O IDENTITY THET/

• pplying for credit and debit cards on the name of another one

• sing credit cards of the indi#idual by stealing his information

• loans obtained from banks fraudulently

• 4ake phone pretending as bank employees

• Creating e mail ids and social networking profiles by gi#ing false information

• Illegal acti#ities carried on the name of #ictim

• Securing &ob and other benefits by using the name of #ictim

Id+'&& T$+8& I' Cr+d& C"rd!<

*he person may use the identity to commit another crime resulting in financial gain to him

like misuse of the credit card information to make online purchase% opening new accounts%

sell the identities to others

&ase law2


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Facts: In this case the three people booked plane tickets by misusing credit card details of

almost /?? people and obtaining credit from their accounts fraudulently% those three people

were caught by the city crime in#estigation centre in Pune

'r. Par#esh Chauhan% ICICI Prudential +ife Insurance officer had complained on behalf of

one of his customer. In this regard 'r. San&eet 'aha#ir Singh +ukkad% 2harmendra "hika

$ale and hmead Sikandar Shaikh. *hese three people were arrested. +ukkad being

employeed at a pri#ate institution% $ale was his friend. Shaiklh was employed in one of the

branches of State "ank of India.

ccording to the first information report recei#ed from the police% one of the #ictims recei#ed

a message to his phone based alert for purchasing of the ticket e#en when the credit card was being held by him and he was not using his credit card when he recei#ed that message.

Customer was alert and came to know something is going wrong and unusualM he enHuired

and came to know about the misuse. 5e contacted the "ank in this regards. +ater police

obser#ed that there was in#ol#ement of many other "anks in this reference.

*he tickets were booked through online means for many people thus making this offence

come under I* ct. Police reHuested for the login details from a pri#ate in#estigation

company which ga#e them the details of the offenders% later state bank of India also pro#ided

the police with details. Shaikh was working in the credit card departmentM due to this he had

access to credit card details of some customers. 5e ga#e that information to $ale. $ale in

return passed this information to his friend +ukkad. sing the information obtained from

$ale +ukkad booked tickets. 5e used to sell these tickets to customers and get money for the

same. 5e had gi#en few tickets to #arious other institutions.Cyber Cell head 2CP Sunil

Pulhari and PI 'ohan 'ohadikar .P.I $ate were in#ol#ed in eight days of in#estigation and

finally caught the culprits. In this regards #arious "anks ha#e been contactedM also four air-

line industries were contacted. 2CP Sunil Pulhari has reHuested customers who ha#e fallen in

to this trap to inform police authorities on 0;/0-6680 or 0;/0-336; if they ha#e any

problems.

Held: In this case the court held that those three people where guilty under section ;; c of the

information act because this case fulfils all the ingredients of cheating of personation carried

in #irtual world.*hree people were punished under the section ;; c and ;; d of information

technology act.


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&ases related to creatn! fake emal ds and socal networkn! accounts:

&haru sn!h case:

Facts:

In this case the charu singh is an air hostess and broke up with her boyfriend because the a

person got into the account of her and sent abusi#e messages to her boyfriend because of

which charu singh broke up

Held:

In this case the person who sent the message was held liable because% he dishonestly personated himself to be charu singh and sent the messages through computer resource% thus

making him liable for cheating by personation under the pro#isions of section ;;.

In addition to these cases there are many other cases on this concept also such as a fake

account was created on the name of accused in ektha nath case and the culprit was held liable.

*here was hike in the cases in e#ery year% the cases filed under this section ha#e double o#er

the last two years of tym

Sandee) va!hese vs state of kerala

Facts: here in this case the complaint was filed by the representati#e of company. Company

basically deals with trading and distribution of petrochemicals in India and o#erseas. 5ere in

this case the complaint was filed on nine members alleging offences under section ;8%;;%;;

% C and 2 of the information technology act along with the sections 6/> and 60? of Indian

penal code.

*he company actually has a website named www.&aypolychem.com but another internet

website named www.&aypolchem.com was started by the accused people and the website was

actually started by first accused named sandeep in conspiracy with remaining accused

peopled named preethi and chanran&eeth etc. and interesting fact here in this case is sandeep

was the dismissed employee of company which acts circumstantial e#idence to the case that

sandeep is guilty of this cheating and the website which was set up by sandeep consisted of

defamatory and malignant matters of the company here the accused > persons ha#e


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collecti#ely cheated the company and ha#e committed the acts of forgery and impersonation

etc.0;

*he nine started sending emails to the customers of the company by stating false news

regarding the company and its directors and this caused se#ere damage to the fame of the

company and they ha#e incurred huge losses because of these acts. It is estimated that the

loss amounts to se#eral crores. 5ere in this case the accused was found guilty and awarded

punishment as of such.

CHALLENGES ACED IN VIRTUAL WORLD/

ffcultes n fetchn! the )erson:

*he biggest challenge in cheating by personation in #irtual world or cyber space would be

identifying the person who constituted the crime unlike the cheating by personation in real

world in #irtual world. *he fetching of person who constituted crime in cyber space could be

done through the tracing of IP address and a separate cyber team will be in#ol#ed in sol#ing

the case. In real world though the personated person is real or imaginary person% the person

who is acting was seen at least once by the #ictim% but in #irtual world there is no scope of

eye contact with the person% which makes the things difficult and fishy.

&ross countr# *ursdcton:

*he difficult task for any nation could be sol#ing the cross country &urisdictionM here the

country should be a signatory to lot more con#entions in order to make this cross country

&urisdiction simple% since the cyber-crimes are contemporary sub&ect with a lot of flexibility%

the country should keep this in mind while being signatory to any con#ention

nd also the applicability of law in cyber-crimes is also an important challenge the act should

be amended as per the de#elopments in the science and technology field because of the

increasing rate of the crimes% the legislation should pass the laws or amend the laws to make

it simple.

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PUNISHMENT OR CHEATING BY PERSONATION/

Section 6/>0 0= along with other sections of IPC%

*he offence under this section is cogniKable0>% bailable and compoundable3?

Punishments are similar in the case of real world and the #irtual world

27 #etion 419 )hoever heats b% personation sha be p0nishe& )ith an

imprisonment of either &esription for a term )hih ma% eten& to three %ears,

or )ith


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CONCLUSION/

n analysis of the cheating by personation in the cyber space and the real world has pro#ided

significant facets in relation to Indian Penal Code. *he research exhibits that there are certain

challenges which hinder the number of crimes in the cyber world in comparison to real world.

In the cyber space if a certain indi#idual is found to be committing a crime then it is difficult

to catch hold of the offender and similarly there is an ambiguity as to the applicability of law

for that particular offence. dditionally cross country &urisdiction is another challenge faced

in the cyber space% since determining the &urisdiction or the origin of the crime is highly

impossible. nethical hackers should be gi#en an opportunity since they possess expertise in

the cyber misconducts in order to combat the e#er increasing online crimesM &udiciary and the

legislation should act hand in hand for framing and better implementations of laws so that the

laws in place act as tools to punish wrong-doers. India should be a signatory to more and

more international con#entions dealing with cross country &urisdictions.

In comparati#ely lesser challenges were faced in real world than #irtual world% hence there is

scope for amendments and de#elopment in the field of cyber law.

cheating by personation comparison between real and virtual world

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