Lok Sabha Question No. 1426 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2015-07-29
Subject: Cheating by Fake SMS/e-Mails
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: A.T. (NANA) PATIL

**GOVERNMENT OF INDIA**

**MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY**

**DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS**

**LOK SABHA**

**UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1426**

**TO BE ANSWERED ON 29** **TH** **JULY, 2015**

**Cheating by Fake SMS/e-Mails**

**1426. 	SHRI A.T. NANA PATIL:**

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

(a) 	whether the Government is aware of the spam e-mails conveying that they have won a lottery etc., and fake SMSs on mobile numbers are increasing thereby misleading the users;

(b)	 if so, the details thereof;

(c) 	whether the Government proposes to bring out a suitable amendment in the legislation prescribing stringent punishment for the culprits;

(d)	 if so, the details thereof; and

(e)	 if not, the other measure taken to protect the users?

ANSWER

**THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY**

**(SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)**

(a) & (b)	 Madam, The Government is aware of the spam e-mails, fake SMSs or unsolicited messages being received by people in their inbox or mobile phones. The contents of such unsolicited messages may range from scams, false anti-virus notifications, pornography material, illegal medicines, chain letters and religious or political spam. ‘Nigerian Letter Fraud’, Phishing and Pyramid Scams are some of the Cyber Crimes, in which spam messages are used for commercial exploitation and cheating the recipients of such messages.  The fraudulent activities comprising of phishing, lottery scams, ATM/Credit Card frauds, internet banking frauds, and other banking frauds involve usage of e-mail and SMS to trick the users to steal their identity credentials and commit fraud.

Contd…2/-

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(c) to (e)	 The Information Technology Act, 2000, provides legal framework to address various types of prevalent cyber crimes and security breaches of information technology infrastructure.  Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000 provides for punishment of imprisonment up to three years and fine for sending spam emails of commercial exploitation through computer resource or communication device.   Further other measures taken by the Government to protect the users against spam emails and fake SMSs include:

1. To create awareness about possible frauds by using email and SMS, advisories are being issued by Banks, Telecom Service Providers and Police Authorities from time to time to the users.
2. Banks are creating user awareness for general public against phishing, lottery scams, internet banking, Credit/Debit cards and other frauds.
3. Steps have been taken to monitor and prevent financial frauds through phishing attacks, Credit / Debit card frauds, money laundering schemes etc.
4. Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DEITY) conducts programs to generate information security awareness. Specific book, videos and online materials are developed for children, parents and general users about information security which are disseminated through Portals like “secureyourpc.in” and “www.secureyourelectronics.in”.

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