Article: Call center staff sold data

News.com reports: “Indian call center staff sold data, TV show says”

An undercover TV investigation claims to have infiltrated criminal gangs selling thousands of U.K. credit card and passport details for as little as $9.50 each from offshore call centers.

The “Dispatches” documentary, shown on U.K.’s Channel 4, follows a 12-month investigation. It included footage of middlemen offering an undercover reporter the credit card details gleaned from Indian call centers of 100,000 U.K. bank customers.

Since this is a high profile event, now the blamestorming begins. Who was at fault?
A. The companies that outsourced their Call Center needs to India?

B. The India-based Call Centers themselves for not screening employees throughly and having stricter safeguards?

C. The government for not having enough regulatory policies and monitoring in place?

D. All of the above.

We may not know who to blame, but we certainly know that the consumer will pay for it.

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional who is concerned about how companies handle personally identifiable information. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.