Administrator removes fraudulent website of Forest Department

 

The Hitavada Impact
By Kartik Lokhande 
Taking cognisance of report in ‘The Hitavada’ and follow-up taken by city-based organisation Cyber Awareness Organisation, website administrator Webgarden has removed the fraudulent website in the name of Maharashtra Forest Department. Now, there is no content and logo of Maharashtra Forest Department on the web address http://mhforest.evenweb.com.
‘The Hitavada’ had exposed the fraudulent website through a news report published in CityLine on October 25. The fraudulent website had been launched with the URL http://mhforest.evenweb.com. It displayed logo of Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. Rest of the screen invited applications for 1,240 posts of ‘Field Officers’ in Maharashtra Forest Department. It offered a salary of Rs 18,500 during training and Rs 22,500 later on. Surprisingly, the fake website stated that there would be ‘no examination or interview’ for the recruitment.
More surprisingly, Maharashtra Forest Department issued only a public notice. The notice stated, “Maharashtra Forest Department has never hosted http://mhforest.evenweb.com website. Also, there is no direct or indirect connection with any person or Maharashtra Forest Department as a whole, with the content published in the above-mentioned fake website.” The department also alerted the people ‘to desist from the false publicity being propagated by the said website’.
A city-based outfit Cyber Awareness Organisation, however, followed up the matter with the website administrator Webgarden. “As per the provisions of Information Technology Act, anybody having any objection over the content of a website can write directly to website administrator concerned. It is mandatory for website administrator to remove such content within 36 hours,” said Adv Mahendra Limaye, a Cyber Legal Consultant. He told ‘The Hitavada’ that he followed up the matter with the website administrator and had received a mail from Webgarden that the ‘user has now removed the logo and content from the website.’
According to Adv Limaye, there are umpteen number of such cases of fraudulent websites using Government departments’ logos and content. “However, whenever such cases come to fore, the Government department concerned issues only a public notice cautioning the people not to fall prey to such fraudulent websites. Government departments are still ignorant about the procedure to be followed as per the provisions of Information Technology Act,” he said. Either there is no will of the Government or the departments concerned are ignorant, he added.

Another fraudulent website Adv Mahendra Limaye brought to the notice of ‘The Hitavada’ another fraudulent website in the name of Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE), set up by Government of India and SIDBI.
The fraudulent website has the URL www.cgtmse-govt.in while the genuine website of CGTMSE is www.cgtmse.in. In fact, the official website of CGTMSE carries a ‘warning’ that states, ‘www.cgtmse-govt.in is not our website. CGTMSE only deals with its MLIs. CGTMSE does not deal directly with borrower, does not have any agents, does not disburse subsidies or collects any fees through agents/representatives.’
According to Adv Limaye, several youngsters have lost lakhs of rupees to the fraudulent website. These include a youngster from Nagpur who has lost Rs 4 lakh, another from Aurangabad and some more. Nagpur-based youngster has lodged a complaint with Gittikhadan Police. When Adv Limaye followed up the matter, Ministry of Information Technology informed him that Nagpur Police would block the fraudulent website. Police have sought permission from court, added Adv Limaye. 

(Published in The Hitavada CityLine on October 30, 2014)

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