Fun software turns new tool for crime

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It’s fun until someone gets hurt or duped. The Delhi Police recently nabbed a conman who used an otherwise harmless software on a Chinese mobile to dupe people. The alleged thug, Naveen Kumar, ran a friendship club and according to accusations used the voice modulator software to talk to gullible victims in a woman’s voice and lured them into making dubious deals.
Those abreast with the latest gizmo trends have their laptops, iPhones and Android cellphones loaded with fancy software, like the commonly used Call Cheater. Most of these are fun, unless they are being used by unscrupulous elements. Youngsters believe that the easy availability of such software and Chinese phones has led to a rise in cyber crime and can pose a serious threat.
Shrutipriya, an IIT aspirant, avers, “The case of Chinese handsets without the IMEI was tackled well. These were available easily and were untraceable. Such software should be checked, they could probably track the IP addresses of the downloaders.”
And some, who have experienced the flip side of “useful software”, swear never to tinker with such stuff again.
Ravi Kumar, a student of DAV Public School, explains, “Chinese handsets have extra attachments like two or three SIM cards, TV and FM receiver, touchscreen and the works. And once while fiddling with one such Chinese handset at home, I accidentally turned the ‘voice changer’ application. And I realised this only after a few rude calls, when people failed to recognise my voice. Such technology in a notorious person’s hands could surely be dangerous.”
Recalling his college stint when his friends discovered myriad uses of software on the Internet, Nisesh Mehta, a management trainee, avers, “During our presentations at B-school, the Internet was jammed from our exam halls, but the server stayed on. So, one bright spark discovered a software called IP Messenger and used it to transfer and exchange files over the local intranet even when the Internet was disabled. Professors had no clue about it. But it forced us to think that any person who had the messenger installed on his PC could have access to any other terminal on the network. It’s scary.”
Manpreet Singh, an engineering student, seconds, “One commonly used handy software is the keygen (key generator), which could be a nuisance for companies as it turns pirated software into legally registered ones, but using voice modulators for crime is a first-timer for me. The cyber crime rate has increased as the Internet has swept over urban and semi-urban regions of the country.”
And checking the misuse of such software is practically impossible and it becomes a problem once notorious elements get access to such stuff, Manpreet sums up, saying, “It is really difficult to check the misuse of such software in India, primarily because the user rights cannot be limited to a certain section only. And even if that is done, people can manage to bypass proxies.”