Indian Call Centre suffers serious security lapse
India's outsourcing companies are
introducing a national screening programme to try and limit the
potential damage caused by revelations this week that offshore
call centre staff stole $350,000 from Citibank customers.
The industry was rocked after it came to light
that three former employees of Indian business process outsourcing
provider Mphasis, which runs call centre services for Citibank's
US clients in Bangalore and Pune, were arrested in connection
with the incident along with nine other gang members.
The three former personnel apparently stole the
phone numbers of four Citibank customers and tricked them into
giving the PIN numbers to their accounts during an off-site call.
The accused then used the numbers to transfer funds into the bank
accounts of other members of the group.
The fraud was only discovered when the customers
noticed that the money was missing and Citibank traced the transaction
back to Mphasis in Pune.
Although Mphasis said the incident was "regrettable"
it indicated that initial investigations showed that its security
procedures and detection systems had worked and timely enforcement
ensured that culprits couldn't get away with such acts.
In a PR faux pas, however, it also added that
the fraud "could not have been prevented as some gullible
customers have parted with their passwords/pass-codes carelessly."
Meanwhile, despite the fact that Mphasis said
the accused had no prior criminal records and passed all reference
checks, the National Association of Software and Service Companies
in India has now stepped in to try and
calm nerves.
