Indian call centres ‘pose security risk’

A year's wages for customer details...

By John Oates • Get more from this author

Posted in Applications, 5th April 2004 11:09 GMT

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Members of the European Parliament are calling for better protection for consumer data sent overseas as a result of offshoring agreements.

A group of British MEPs, backed by British union Amicus which campaigns against offshoring, is taking its concerns to the Employment and Social Affairs committee of the European Commission today.

They want regulation to prevent unauthorised access of personal details being processed abroad. The Data Protection Act requires company's maintain servers within the EU but allows that data to be processed anywhere.

David Fleming, Amicus National Secretary for Finance, said in a statement: "Offshoring is an accident waiting to happen. It is only a matter of time before a serious crime is committed which ruin the reputation of the British financial services industry."

Credit card provider Capital One recently scrapped a deal with Wipro over fears operators were offering customers excessive credit limits.

Criminals are believed to be trying to bribe Indian call centre workers to get access to customer credit card details. Call centre workers have been offered up to a year's wages for credit card numbers, according to the Evening Standard.

Amicus believes as many as UK 200,000 jobs could go overseas by 2008. ®