Virtual crimes rate increase in Istanbul

Virtual crimes committed through the Internet are rising rapidly. The Istanbul police are receiving criminal complaints ranging from password thefts to blackmail as angry ex-lovers, enemies, identity thieves and sex offenders are disturbing the virtual peace of Internet users more and more every day.

There has been a boom in online crimes including child pornography, obscenity, gambling, insults, intimidation and blackmail during the last 11 months, and one-third of them have occurred through Facebook.

The Public Order Directorate of the Istanbul Police Department has said it is taking complaints seriously and that its motto in its fight against these crimes is: “The crime is real even if the environment is virtual.”

According to data from the Informatics Crime Directorship, online crimes have increased by 50 percent this year with 1,488 criminal complaints filed regarding the virtual world. The directorate assigns this increase to the general growth of computer usage.

The directorate has received 521 complaints of e-mail theft, and intimidation through the Internet has happened in 430 separate cases. There also have been 12 cases falling into the child pornography category, which involves deceiving minors to undress in front of Web cams.

Neighbors, old friends and lovers are the majority players in cases of blackmail and intimidation. A victim with the initials M.T. who is a 59-year-old housewife from Büyükçekmece had her mobile phone number featured on a dating site advertisement. The offender turned out to be M.T.’s former tenant, a 46-year-old with initials Y.T. The offender was not a computer user himself, and he used his young nephew to commit the act.

Another housewife from Gaziosmanpaşa filed a criminal complaint when she found that a 34-year-old former gym teacher with initials C.L. had convinced the housewife’s 12-year-old daughter to undress in front of a Web cam. The perpetrator was visiting gaming sites and presenting himself as a 13-year-old girl. He was taken into custody at an Internet café in Kadıköy and arrested for sexually abusing a minor.

The police also pointed to the potential dangers of the social network Facebook, which was the platform for 481 criminal complaints. One-third of them are about the theft of personal information.

Other groupings of Internet crimes include: 158 openings of online profiles without an authorization from that person, 200 unauthorized publishing of personal communication information, 15 thefts of game characters, 15 unauthorized instances of publishing copyrighted material and 46 complaints on disturbance through e-mail.

Two percent of the virtual crimes were for insulting the state, state officials and Atatürk. Acts that are considered as terror crimes are automatically transferred to the Anti-Terror Division.

An executive from a company at Kadıköy received e-mails about his wife having a relationship with someone else and threats regarding his personal life. The police found out that they were from an ex-coworker who had some problems with the victim. The offender was charged with the crime of “making threats and disturbing the peace through the Internet.”

A storeowner from Eyüp filed a criminal complaint about his 12-year-old daughter’s Facebook account being hacked and texts of sexual content being posted on her profile. The investigation uncovered that a friend of the girl from school was trying to get revenge on her for an argument they had.

A high school student from Küçükçekmece filed a criminal complaint after the password for his 1,600 Turkish Lira-worth game character on the www.knightonline.com gaming site was stolen. The police found that a 29-year-old computer programmer from Bursa was the thief.

The home, work and mobile phone numbers of a 36-year-old woman who works at a local newspaper in Kadıköy was posted online with a comment saying she is looking for a boyfriend. The offender turned out to be a high school friend who had a crush on the woman.

/Hurriyet Daily News/