Camouflaged mobile number cannot be traced to sender

MUMBAI: City cops have investigated two complaints related to ‘masked’ mobile numbers in the past one month. After the complainants reported lewd text messages received on their phone, the police discovered that the messages were sent not from another phone but a website that allows you to ‘fake’ a mobile phone number. Sources from the IT industry told TOI that they have had a series of meetings with the cops over the past few days to discuss the issue. “It’s rare for the real miscreant to be caught in such situations because people might register with false identities and also commit credit card fraud to pay the small registration fee,’’ says IT expert Vijay Mukhi.

Will existing cyber laws apply if the culprit is nabbed? “Yes,’’ says Mukhi. “Section 66 A of the IT Act talks about sending offensive messages using any communication device, Section 66 C is the identity theft section and Section 66 D the cheating by impersonation section.’’

Pornographic text messages can be charged under Section 66 E, while Section 66 F is quoted in the case of cyber terrorism.