Shine.com Impersonated
On the web, if you are gaining
popularity as a website there are many who would like to misuse your
popularity. Some examples of misuse of the name Naavi has been reported
in this site earlier when it has come to our knowledge.
Now here is an example of one more
instance where a job portal called "Shine.com" has been used by
chingoracle.com as is apparent from the following mail
The words "click here"
at the top and bottom are linked to ching oracle which appears to be an
e-mail promotion company. The hyperlinks attached to the words "Shine.com"
and "Click here to Register" point to
http://ora.horoscopofree.com/en/?U=2181099&L=0&R=2190.
While it is not clear
how popular is the website shine.com, it is clear that its name is being
misused by horoscopofree.com with or without its own knowledge because
its marketing partner is using the shine.com name for promoting the
company.
We can identify here a
Section 66C and 66D offence under ITA 2008 or an attempt to commit such
offences (Sec 84C). Shine.com can be accused of misdirecting visitors to
its site to the horoscope site. The horosope site can be directly
accused by shine.com for Sec 66C/66D/84C offences. Chingoracle of course
is the primary offender who has landed both horosopofree.com and
shine.com in legal tangle. In the event ora.horosopofree.com infects the
visitor with any virus, there could be other offences under ITA 2008
also being linked to the incident.
This is also a good
example of how Compliance requirements at Portal work out. Now having
observed this development, both horoscopofree.com and shine.com need to
examine what measures they need to take to prevent such fraud attempt
which has been brought to their notice. (This public article on the
Internet is a sufficient notice). If they keep quiet, then they may be
open to accusation of facilitating such frauds through inaction and can
be accused of lack of due diligence under Section 79 of ITA 2008.
This incident
reinforces the need for services such as CEAC-ITN as for as Shine.com is
concerned and the need for Cyber Law Compliance practice by portals on a
continuous basis.
Naavi
15 April 2011
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