PTI

Bangalore, Jun 28: Think twice before you SMS that really funny obscene joke or blindly forward a photograph - you could land yourself behind bars or unknowingly act as a conduit for a terrorist gang, warn IT experts.

"Terrorists use the Internet for achieving their goals. An innocent man may be unknowingly drawn into the terrorist network, when he receives a photograph of a beautiful woman from a stranger, who then asks him to forward it to 21 friends to win a prize," Vijayshankar, consultant, Cyber Law and Techno Legal Cyber Security, said.

"The photograph could contain a hidden terrorist message encrypted within," he said. The attack on Parliament was linked to hidden messages SMSed to various people in the garb of a beautiful photograph of leading Indian actress, he said.

"Hence, one should not forward messages received from unknown persons," says Vijayshankar, who is part of the IT Professionals' Forum (ITPF) group which is organising a web seminar on June 29 on www.Itpfindia.org to warn people on cyber crimes.

"Cyber crime is no longer happening only to people working with higher technology. It has begun to affect ordinary people and was reaching the smaller cities and towns as well," he said.

Even a person who has never used the Internet could become a victim of cyber crime. Citing an example of housewife in Coimbatore, he said that the housewife who did not know how to use a computer began receiving obscene calls.

Investigations revealed that her phone number had been posted on the Internet by a relative from her own house since the two were not on good terms, he said.