New penalties inadequate to control identity theft

With the advent of the internet, a new environment became available for communication and commerce. Unfortunately, this environment also swiftly gave rise to several new species of offences of which identity theft has emerged as one of the worst. As the name suggests, the offence involves stealing the identity of another person and making use of it for wrongful gain.

However, the term “identity theft” has not been defined under the recently amended Information Technology Act, 2000, or under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860. The Department of Justice of the United States (the country with the largest number of reported incidences) defines identity theft as wrongfully obtaining and using another person’s personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain. In India, identity theft can range from credit card fraud to fraudulently using another person’s PAN card number, election card number, bank account details and e-mail passwords.

Identity theft concerns

The business process outsourcing (BPO) sector in India is particularly susceptible to identity theft. There has been concern over the integrity of operations outsourced to India, especially those that involve sensitive personal or financial data. Increasingly frequent instances of credit card fraud by BPO employees in the early 2000s revealed the inadequacies of the IT Act.

Priti Suri is the proprietor of PSA where Ashutosh Chandola is an associate.