IMPACT OF INTERNET TECHNOLOGY ON ECONOMIC CRIME

Veungopalan. R

BA0140074

INTRODUCTION

Cyber law is a term used to describe the legal issues related to use of communications
technology, particularly “cyberspace”, i.e. the Internet. It is less of a distinct field of law in the
way that property or contract are, as it is an intersection of many legal fields, including
intellectual property, privacy, freedom of expression, and jurisdiction. In essence, cyber law is an
attempt to apply laws designed for the physical world, to human activity on the Internet. In India,

Economic crimes refer to illegal acts committed by an individual or a group of individuals to

obtain a financial or professional advantage. In such crimes, the offender’s principal motive is
economic gain. Cyber crimes, tax evasion, robbery, selling of controlled substances, and abuses
of economic aid are all examples of economic crimes.

Economic crime accounts for a loss of more than $200 billion dollars annually, and as the
complexity and costly nature of such activity becomes more sophisticated, this number is
expected to increase. These traits often make an economic crime investigation harder to pursue
and prevention more troublesome to implement. Thus, corporations rely on the expertise and
training of investigators and criminal justice professionals to safeguard their financial assets and
identities against unscrupulous economic action.

Cyber crime is an economic crime committed using computers and the internet. It includes
distributing viruses, illegally downloading files, phishing and pharming, and stealing personal
information like bank account details. It’s only a cyber crime if a computer, or computers, and
the internet play a central role in the crime, and not an incidental one.

Cyber crime is a generic term that refers to all criminal activities done using the medium of
computers, the Internet, cyber space and the worldwide web. There isn’t really a fixed definition
for cyber crime. The Indian Law has not given any definition to the term ‘cyber crime’. In fact,
the Indian Penal Code does not use the term ‘cyber crime’ at any point even after its amendment
by the Information Technology (amendment) Act 2008, the Indian Cyber law.

Research objective

The main objective of the paper is to determine the impact of internet technology on economic
crime, and the legislations in India to prevent the fraudulent investment or financial trading such
as ponzi schemes.

Research Question

What is the impact of internet technology on economic crimes?

What are the legal measures to prevent this impact?

Research Methodology:

The research methodology employed in doing the research work is doctrinal analysis. The
research will be descriptive and analytic research. As the research will be based on the existing
facts through articles and books etc. and the researcher will analyze the collected data and give
suggestion or recommendations towards the end of the research.

Review of Literature

1. Rehan Khan, Cyber Privacy Issues in India

In this the author states that the Technology has changed the way information is being received
or sent, and, so it has affected the privacy rights of a person. Now privacy is not only limited to
intrusion in one’s private life (peeping in home), it has a much wider reach. Use of Smartphone
with Internet together have provided many ways to keep an eye or to track a person without
being noticed, resulting as a breach of privacy. The growing privacy issues in cyber space and a
legal approach to defend and protect one’s privacy rights in India.

2. Dr. Sarla Gupta and Beniprasad Agrawal, “Information Technology, Law and Practice”,
2009, Premier Publishing Company, Allahabad.

In this the author starts by explaining the legislations of the information technology in India and
later also explains about the preventive measures to be taken to prevent the impact of
information technology on economic crimes.