LONDON,March21,2012: Corrupt Indian call centre workers are selling swathes of
confidential personal information, from
credit card details and
medical records to
loan data, of over 500,000 Britons, media reports claimed on Sunday. Confidential personal data on hundreds of thousands of
Britons is being touted by Indian call centre workers, the Sunday Times report said citing its sting operation. Posing as London businessmen , undercover reporters met two Indians, claiming to be information technology workers at call centres trying to sell confidential personal information. The two data traders boasted of having 45 different sets of personal information on nearly 500,000 Britons, the Daily Mail reported separately. Once in the hands of criminals and unscrupulous companies , the data can be used to defraud customers or to provide crucial leads for cold calls. The potential rewards dwarf the cost, as little as 2 pence per piece of information , that the data traders charge, the Times report said. The reporters were tipped off about the activities of the two data traders and had arranged for a meeting in Gurgaon, near New Delhi. One of the sellers of the information told the undercover reporters that, "It's collected by the agents. It's not the bank's data. It's data that has been collected by the agents directly from the person that is holding these cards by survey and the sales they make," the report quoted the trader as saying. The information available from the sellers also included the records of mobile phone company customers and hundreds who subscribe to Sky TV, it said. After accepting a payment of £100, one of them said he had been selling such data for over four years and agreed to provide a sample of information.
