Fact Check: Viral letter of cybercrime is fake
A letter showing the logos of Cyber Cell India, Intelligence Bureau, etc is in circulation on social media with several users asking whether it is genuine and trying to understand whether CBI, Intelligence Bureau, or any other government organisation issues such a letter.
Fake letter
A letter showing the logos of Cyber Cell India, Intelligence Bureau, etc is in circulation on social media with several users asking whether it is genuine and trying to understand whether CBI, Intelligence Bureau, or any other government organisation issues such a letter.
The letter claims that the Cybercrime officials have been watching the IP address of the person to whom the letter has been issued. The IP address has been captured, downloading and watching child pornographic and paedophilic videos. The person is encouraged to respond to the letter immediately within 24 hours stating the justifications to avoid persecution. Failing which, the prosecutor will establish the arrest warrant in the closest police station. The letter was signed by Tapan Deka, Director of the Intelligence Bureau and Prashant Gautam Police/Chief of Police. The letter claims to be from the Bureau of Police Research & Development National Highway-8 Mahipalpur. 110037. New Delhi-India.
Fact check:
The claim is False. No such letter has been issued by any organization, functioning under the Government of India.
When we searched for such a letter using a few keywords, we found the tweet by X handle named Cyber Dost stating that the letter is fake. When observed carefully, we found several spelling mistakes and font aberrations in the document.
The caption on the post goes as “In a letter purportedly issued by Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center (I4C), several allegations are being leveled at the recipient & a reply is being sought to the letter This letter is #fake. No such letter has been issued by any organization under GOI #I4C #MHA”
We also found an Instagram post of All India Radio news alerts, sharing a similar letter with minor differences, stating ‘The Centre has issued an alert against several fake and fraudulent e-mails claiming to be issued by the Central Economic Intelligence Bureau, Cyber Crime and Economic Offence Unit and Cyber Cell of Delhi.
The Ministry of Finance informed that the said letter makes allegations of child pornography, pedophilia, cyber pornography, sexually explicit exhibits, and grooming leveled against the receivers of the said e-mails. The Ministry further said that police authorities have been alerted to take necessary action in the matter.’
When we searched further, we found an article published in the Deccan Herald stating that a bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justice J B Pardiwala observed that merely downloading or watching child porn may not be an offense but certainly, the child being used in pornography will be an offense. On January 11, the Madras High Court quashed the criminal case against a 28-year-old man, S Harish, charged by the prosecution for downloading and watching on his mobile phone some pornographic content involving children.
Here are some tips on how to identify if such letters or emails are authentic
- Check for any spelling or grammatical mistakes
- Search for the logos and the organization names used in the document
- Check whether the names of the organizations used in the document perform the actions mentioned
- Authentic Government communications are sent from official email addresses ending with ‘gov.in’
Hence, the letter in circulation is a fake one. No government organizations issue such letters to citizens through email. The claim is False.