Many times people get confused and mix up fraud with forgery. Wherein both have different meaning to it.

Fraud – when someone wants to gain money or the motive is to get monetary benefit by deceitful behaviour is fraud.

Forgery – The action of duplicating/reproducing/misrepresentation of documents or services for fraudulent purpose is forgery.

What is E-Forgery?

The scope is vast here. Forgery here can include production of falsified documents/product or a service which has resemblance to something which already exists and is used for faking purpose comes under E-forgery.

Misuse of computer systems, internet or any online medium for faking someone else’s identity is E-forgery. We are living in a digital world and forgery here has become very common, anyone can illegally reproduce or endorse things which can even be your digital signatures to fake your identity or for gaining some information or documents.

Threats

With using advanced technologies it is very easy for anyone to forge a document. This needs someone who is immensely skilled with hands-on knowledge about the tools that they use to forge something. A naked eye or a common man would not be able to detect a forged image/document or a signature. One can only recognise or can detect a fake over an original document/signature, if they are trained to do so.

These types of forgery are risky and dangerous, as we would not be able to find out the duplicity and fall prey to the whole scenario. When you are a victim, you can have a reputation or even bear a financial loss due to e-forgery.

Section – 464 of the Indian penal code covers forgery and it has bifurcation on forged document or fabricated e-record (Reference – indiankanoon.org)

464 Making a false document — ³⁴¹ [A person is said to make a false document or false electronic record— First —Who dishonestly or fraudulently—

• makes, signs, seals or executes a document or part of a document;
• makes or transmits any electronic record or part of any electronic record;
• affixes any ³⁴² [electronic signature] on any electronic record;
• makes any mark denoting the execution of a document or the authenticity of the ³⁴² [electronic signature],

with the intention of causing it to be believed that such document or part of document, electronic record or ³⁴² [electronic signature] was made, signed, sealed, executed, transmitted or affixed by or by the authority of a person by whom or by whose authority he knows that it was not made, signed, sealed, executed or affixed; or Secondly —Who, without lawful authority, dishonestly or fraudu­lently, by cancellation or otherwise, alters a document or an electronic record in any material part thereof, after it has been made, executed or affixed with ³⁴² [electronic signature] either by himself or by any other person, whether such person be living or dead at the time of such alteration; or Thirdly —Who dishonestly or fraudulently causes any person to sign, seal, execute or alter a document or an electronic record or to affix his ³⁴² [electronic signature] on any electronic record knowing that such person by reason of unsoundness of mind or intoxication cannot, or that by reason of deception practised upon him, he does not know the contents of the document or electronic record or the nature of the alteration.]

Escaping E-forgery

Due to the high-tech revolution, stealing of electric identity is treated as one of the majorly advanced and developed criminal offence – that has come with the progressive use of IT technology based computer systems. Advanced computer systems and technology has a lot of dependency on the web based services and other online movement, while using these network and services on a broader spectrum, people have neglected/overseen the negatives impacts which comes along with it. Now, as this has seen as a impact on the overall security measures, individuals who work for the systems have started creating preventative actions to stop E-forgery.

Companies have started providing devices that prevent any kind of theft – there are defensive measures in which online borders are building and are safeguarded along with open communication that inquires the rationality of the unrecognized activity. Now, it’s a forte for these types of companies to create hindrance in front of individuals who do identity forging, along with providing security to those who try and trespass on personal information.

Prevention tips

We can see many examples of e-forgery – spam, Trojans, hacking, internet banking, junk email etc. You will have to ensure that you follow the below tips while using social media (Facebook, Whatsapp etc), Banking app, emails or even your text messages.

• Update your computers antivirus
• Use secure and safe browsing
• WOT – Web of trust is used by Firefox’s No script as browser add-on and this helps in preventing your account from getting hacked
• Once you login to any site and start it, if it asks you to login for the second time, close the browser and start a new session
• Never share your password with anyone and it needs to be a strong one using special characters
• Different password for different accounts and change it periodically
• Remember the security questions which you would have filled while creating your social media bank or any other accounts
• Keep an eye on any tempting or doubtful post from your family/friends and never accept any request from strangers
• Do not share your bank account and any other personal information on Whatsapp
• Downloading files from unknown sources should be a big No
• Do not entertain people/messages asking for payment for using FB/Whatsapp/Insta etc
• Try not to use freely available Wifi in public places
• Do not shop over free Wifi
• Report immediately if you are unable to access your account or email id
• Use “HTTPS” before the website name and only if it shows a security lock, you are good to enter the website
• Never share the banking details over phone or through message
• Rub out the CVV code from your Debit/Credit card
• Activate message alert for all your accounts
• Intimate the bank or update your account with new phone numbers (if any)
• Do not entertain emails which states that they wish to refund your Income Tax

These are some of the measures that will help promptly, but irrespective of any detail being said – people still ignore small details and they fall under the trap.

We have provided you with the information and hope you take a step towards your own security.