Conmen fake piracy raids
By Pulkit Sharma

Cyber law expert Na.Vijayashankar, also known as Naavi in Cyberspace, is one of the most respected names in the Indian tech world.  As Chairman of the Digital Society Foundation and as a Director of Cyber Law College, one of Naavi’s life mottos is “Let’s build a responsible Cyber society”.   Naavi’s views are highly regarded and he is regularly quoted by the leading Indian newspapers and tech magazines.

As a lawyer and activist campaigning for a better, balanced digital society in India, Naavi has seen it all.  From the tech idealists to internet criminals. Naavi picks up trends much before they hit mainstream media and public consciousness.

Founded in 1982, Autodesk Inc is the world’s leading supplier of PC Design tools.  Headquartered in California, USA, Autodesk is a world leader in 2D and 3D design software used by most of the Fortune 1000 companies.  One of its most popular products is AutoCAD which is widely used in India.

Naavi is now reporting on how some con artists masquerading as representatives of Autodesk are carrying out fake piracy raids on sites which use AutoCAD and demanding Rs. 1 lakh cash to settle the matter.  Naavi blogged this morning:

“
Copyright Enforcement Fraud?

June 10: There have been instances of fraudsters impersonating as Police officials and collecting money from unsuspecting public with threats of various kinds. Naavi.org had earlier reported an attempted fraud in Hyderabad where some fraudsters tried to extort money from a person who was on an online obscene chat. It appears that a new gang has surfaced in Bangalore which is going around questioning some designing professionals if their AutoCAD software is licensed and if not are demanding a sum of Rs 1 lakh. It is necessary for the Police to investigate and to put an end to the fraud.
”

Today, Techgoss spoke to Advocate B. K. Satish who confirmed that he has received a number of queries from businesses in Bangalore and Mangalore after at least one Design House using AutoCAD software was raided by the fake inspectors offering to settle for Rs. 1 Lakh.