Slashdot Mirror
Indian Call Centre Worker Sells Customer Details
lxt writes "A British tabloid newspaper managed to buy the personal details of over 1000 bank customers from an off-shore call centre based in Delhi. An IT worker at the call centre handed over details at £4.25 per customer, as well as credit card numbers and account passwords. He claimed could sell over 200,000 account details every month. The British police force has passed on details to Interpol and the Indian authorities, in an attempt to prosecute the individual. The BBC is also covering the story."
Well, it was to be expected, outsourcing the jobs to a low paid area - workers that are paid fairly are less likely to cheat their employees.
Get rid of the call centers, keep them in the country that they expect to be dealing with (UK call centers for UK clients etc)
... the barter system. This newfangled electronic stuff just isn't working out.
GETPKG - Package Management for Slackware
- Full name
- Home address
- Phone
- Mother's maiden name
- PIN number
- Favorite password
Please send this information to me accompanied by a money order in the amount of $4.95 to cover my processing fees. I will get the confirmation about the tabloid article back to you ASAP.Decades ago it was the waiter or waitress at the restaurant we used to worry about. When mail order began to grow, it was the person at the other end of the line of a mail-order company. Outsourcing (in country or out of country) is just a form of concentration of this phenomena.
Sending potentially valuable information to people in a high stress, low paying job (in country or out of country, my wife worked in a call center in college) with poor controls is a risk. We have known this since the beginning, but we just seem to relearn the lesson each time.
What do you know I wrote a novel
This story is all over in Indian press.1 300460000.htm 5 0344.cms 5 0670.cms 4 9334
http://us.rediff.com/money/2005/jun/23bpo.htm
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1408799,00
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/11
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/11
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=
My most esteemed colleague,
Please excuse my unforgiveable oversight in neglecting to put a return address. In my excitement to be making such excellent contacts in your country, I was clearly negligent. Please remit all sums to:
Post Office Stop A
Lagos State
Nigeria
I cannot tell you how grateful I am to find such a kind and professional person such as yourself, and I look forward to a mutually beneficial financial arrangement. Please send the money right away!
I knew two guys in college who got by on credit card scams. Those were the days when the nameless university (NYU, cough) thought it cool to put part of your social security number in your student ID number. The smart guys could derive the rest, and everyone is but a drunken night away from divulging their whole life story, so, guy #1 was caught and convicted to 11 years for credit card fraud.
The second guy had a girlfriend who worked at a neurologist's office. Most of the patients are old with degenerative conditions. When a patient would die, the girlfriend would pass on the info, and he'd get some cards, max em out, and throw them away. He's actually a pretty successful guy now. don't think he's with the girl anymore though.
All of which is to say - the problem is ubiquitious. Corruption is inherent with the humans dealing with the data, but I can't help but think that there must be a better way of dealing with financial data to prevent theft.
I'm torn, because with increased attempts at security come fewer freedoms. Pretty soon you'll have to give up the Gattaca drop of blood in order to buy movie tickets. I'm not sure if that makes the world a better place.
un burrito me trampeó.
The British police force has passed on details to Interpol and the Indian authorities, in an attempt to prosecute the individual.
They are barking up the wrong tree. If only the individual in another jurisdiction is liable to sanction, why is it allowed for British banks to move personal information to foreign countries in the first place? Shouldn't the bank be fined for failing to protect personal information of British citizens?
Abuse of power by employees is not something new or interesting, but the accountability issue is. Personal information should only be moved between countries with similar protections against abuse. Having said this, I don't know anything about British law on this issue.