INTERNET: A Bottomless Pit?

Hi Minu, I’m a 30-year-old guy from Mumbai, well-settled,

working in a Spanish company. I travel to Pune quite often. I love sex and would

like to enjoy the best of it with you. I am slim, tall and good looking. If you

are interested, do get in touch with me and let us meet soon. Take care and be

careful about the guys you choose for sex. 

Cheers, Frederick

Cool Meenakshi, I too am an MBA student. I found your name and

your naughty message on indiatimes. Just send me a mail. Let’s see how we

measure up to each other and then let things happen as they do. Good idea? Phew!

I’m glad you liked it.

Mukesh

Hey Meenakshi! I’m Karan. I just went through your sad

sexual story. May be I can help you out with an extra hand. Need that? Mail me

plzzzzz...Till then enjoy.

Karan

For those who think they have stumbled upon the transcripts of a

sleazy ‘party’ line or the feedback on a ‘hot adult’ Website, well, they’re

wrong. These are messages sent to Meenakshi Deshpande, a 24-year-old management

student from Pune, on her e-mail address. The catch–she didn’t create the

account, which receives an average of 30 such messages daily. In fact, Meenakshi’s

modest family home at Deccan Gymkhana, one of Pune’s conservative areas, doesn’t

even have a computer. And to top it all, Meenakshi doesn’t even know how to

use the Internet!

The nightmare

It all began two months ago when Meenakshi suddenly started

receiving scores of persistent telephone calls with lewd overtones. Matters

turned worse when men started trooping into Meenakshi’s home seeking the

"promised tryst with her for sexual satisfaction".

It was Mohana, Meenakshi’s sister, who, while warding off

one such caller, dug out the fact that the man was simply responding to e-mails

supposedly sent by Meenakshi. She noted down the e-mail address where these

messages originated. She was ‘lucky’ to crack the password of the account by

using the ‘forgot password’ option, only to encounter a deluge of nearly 30

similar responses per day.

On April 21, 2001, an unidentified user created an e-mail

account in Meenakshi’s name. Since that day, the user has sent 385 e-mails

from this account. All these mails state that Meenakshi is in need of money and

sex and is seeking a relationship on a short-term basis. The e-mails mention

Meenakshi’s address, telephone number, age, the name of her college, family

background and her description as "tall, fair and slim". The user

signs off each of these mails with "Your soon to be partner–Meenakshi".

Initially, he also doled out tips–"If anybody else answers the phone

instead of me, hang up." This soon changed to inviting the recipients for a

"session".

The Deshpandes have lodged a complaint with the portal in

question. A representative from the portal says, "We are doing our best to

track the identity of the user and will continue. We will not be able to track

the user if we delete the account."

On May 20, when the first two ‘visitors’ walked in, the

Deshpande family called the police. Inspector Dattatrey Datar, crime branch,

Pune, says, "We questioned these boys. They too sensed something fishy when

the address led to a respectable residential area. One of the boys was from

Delhi studying in Pune. The investigation is under way and we hope to achieve a

breakthrough soon."

Dataquest contacted some of the respondents and found that

the e-mail addresses have been harvested from dating sites. Says Frederick, the

author of one of the most explicit responses, "A dating site is a public

place where everyone is free to write to anyone; everyone is responsible for his

or her behavior. However, in cases like Meenakshi’s, we need to do everything

possible to prevent such violent misuse of the Net. I was shocked when I found

out what had happened and felt very bad for Meenakshi. Please do not mention my

name anywhere. It will lead to another family mishap in my case."

Meanwhile, the user has now sent a mail to Meenakshi, saying,

"I came to know that you are trying to trap me. But I am an Internet guru.

If you don’t stop, deadlier things will follow..."

Having realized that Mohana has been deleting e-mails from

the account, the user has now created two new accounts in Meenakshi’s name on

another portal. Explicit invitations continue to be sent out and there seems to

be no end to the harassment endured by Meenakshi and her family.

Manjiri Kalghatgi in New

Delhi (Some names have been changed to protect the identity of

the people concerned)