UK bank details 'traded in India'

12 April 2012

Personal financial data belonging to UK consumers is being stolen and illegally traded due to lax security at Indian call centres, a Channel 4 investigation has uncovered.

A 12-month undercover inquiry for Dispatches found what it claims to be shocking data protection breaches at a number of commercial call centres in the subcontinent.

As a result of these failings, personal bank and other confidential details have been allowed to be gathered and sold on with ease, the programme alleges.

The investigation uncovered a phenomenon known as "data farming" in which unauthorised harvesting of personal information is sold on at a profit.

It is alleged that some call centre employees are involved in the scam, gathering data from customers before selling it on to brokers.

In the film, an undercover journalist is seen in the process of obtaining personal financial data from an Indian middleman.

Sue Turton, senior reporter for Channel 4 News, is seen being offered hundreds and thousands of "hot leads", with full banking and financial profiles.

A protection lawyer shown Channel 4's footage, said: "You couldn't scare me more. This is as bad as it gets. This is evidence of serious criminal offences."

Among the bank details allegedly given to the programme makers during the investigation were data from HSBC and Barclays customers, it is alleged. Both banks said that data had not been leaked from its operations in India.

A statement from HSBC said: "HSBC's lawyers have scrutinised the programme's findings and both ITN and Channel 4 have accepted that HSBC's Indian data security has not been breached.

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