Delhi High Court orders Central government to block websites impersonating US-based firm Cresset Capital

Delhi High Court orders Central government to block websites impersonating US-based firm Cresset Capital

The portals were using the company’s name and logo with the intent to fleece gullible consumers

The Delhi High Court has ordered the Central government and domain name registrars (DNRs) to block and suspend various fraudulent websites impersonating the US-based Investment Advisory and Asset Management Services firms Cresset Capital Management and Cresset Administrative Services Corporation.

The bench comprising Justice Prathiba M Singh also directed the cyber cell of the Delhi Police to investigate the websites as they were collecting money from the consumers.

The cyber cell will investigate the bank accounts opened by the website proprietors and issue freezing orders for the same.

The Court’s order read, "The DNRs shall immediately lock and suspend the domain names and bring down the websites. They shall also disclose the details of the persons who registered these domain names, including any KYC details, and credit card information, which may be available if the defendants have availed of cloud services or any other services from the DNRs.”

Cresset (Plaintiff) had filed a plea stating that an individual Karthikeyan Ganesan registered various domain names with the mark Cresset. The plaintiff was receiving complaints from consumers that they had started investing money in those websites.

Since the websites replicated Cresset’s content, the users were unable to decipher that they were fraudulent.

On examination, the Judge observed that the websites were brazenly using the Cresset name and logo with the intent to impersonate and collect money from gullible consumers.

Justice Singh stated, “It’s clear that the mark ‘Cresset’ as also the accompanying logo is being misused by unscrupulous persons to create fraudulent websites and to collect monies illegally and unlawfully by portraying themselves to be the plaintiffs.”

It added, “All the domain name registrations on record show that they are privacy protected and, thus, the whereabouts or the identities of the persons who have registered the domain names is unknown except to the Registrars. These domain names deserve to be taken down immediately to ensure that further duping of innocent persons is curtailed. A detailed investigation also deserves to be directed through the cyber cell, Delhi Police for effective action against the persons behind such websites.”

Cresset was represented by Senior Advocate Saurabh Kirpal, who was supported by Advocates Anuj Berry, Sourabh Rath, Vibhore Yadav, and Gauri Pasricha.

The Central Government standing counsel Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar with advocates Gokul Sharma, Srish Kumar Mishra, Sagar Mehlawat, Alexander Mathai Paikaday, Krishnan V, and M Sriram represented the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), Department of Technology (DoT).