For the last three years, Vinod Rai, a small entrepreneur from old Delhi, has been engaging the services of a software company to sell toys online, hoping this will act as an effective marketing tool to lure potential customers. Thousands of emails are sent out advertising his products, mostly hand-made wooden toys.

"I hope at least one percent of mails can turn into orders. So even if I send 100,000 mails every day, I hope that I get some orders and that it has helped," says Rai. Many such mails, however, end up in spam folders.

There is a great number of people like Rai who use the Internet to popularize their merchandise.

SMSpam

But the Internet is not the only medium used to target potential customers. Prakash Nanda, a businessman from Mumbai, has twice filed official complaints with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) about pesky telemarketers making unwanted calls and sending him text messages on his mobile phone. He receives over 30 marketing messages almost daily.

"It is really frustrating. In the middle of important meetings I get these irritating calls. Despite the laws placed by TRAI, spam in the form of text messages has reached unprecedented levels," he says.

With a market counting over 750 million current mobile phone subscribers and around 10 million new users every month, bulk Short Messaging Service (SMS) has become the fastest and most economical mode of communication and advertising.

Number one

India's spam market is so vast that the computer security firm Kaspersky has recently dubbed the country "spam capital of the world" after a recent study found that a good quarter of all the world's digital junk mail was initiated there.

The main problem with it is not only that it is annoying, but that it can also carry harmful viruses and worms created to spy on and steal passwords and other sensitive account information. Basic Internet security - from the use of anti-virus software or "strong" passwords - is poor among individuals, companies and even the government and that adds greatly to the risk, experts agree.

Just earlier this week, six foreign nationals were arrested in a phishing probe after being accused of using emails and text messages to dupe their victims by telling them that they had won a lottery.

But such arrests are few and far between.

"Something has to be done soon and fast. We have an Information Technology Act which has been in place for over a decade. But it has remained toothless and hackers and spammers still have a field day," argues Nabeel Kader, a senior manager who works in a global Internet security firm.

Lax laws

In India and all over the world, hackers have been able to infiltrate government websites and military organizations. Realizing the ever-present threat, there are now voices in Indian government calling for better countermeasures to cyber threats.

Realizing the vulnerability of IT systems, security agencies ask people working at key ministries, especially the Defense, External, and Home Ministries as well as the Prime Minister's Office, to separate their official computers from those used to go online.

"It is not only national security which is at risk, but also personal identity and that is why it is imperative that the government wakes up to this looming threat," says security expert Hartosh Singh Bal.

India currently has over 100 million Internet users, making it the third-largest market in the world after China and the United States. And with the rapidly growing netizens, spammers and phishing agents are all set to exploit them.

Author: Murali Krishnan
Editor: Sarah Berning