London: 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 here on Sunday.

Confidential personal data on hundreds of thousands of

Britons is being touted by corrupt 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 trying to sell confidential personal

information 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.

"Barclays bank would never give me any 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 of

people who subscribe to Sky TV, it said.

Other information being traded around by unscrupulous

workers was on mortgages, loans, insurance, mobile phone

contracts, according to the Times sting.

After accepting a payment of 100 pounds, one of them said

he had been selling such data for more than four years and

agreed to provide a sample of information.

Two days later he emailed a total of 841 records,

including information on 15 credit cards and data about six

people earning 15,000 pounds a month or more, the report said.

British companies are reluctant to report such breaches

for fear of the potential adverse publicity.

Richard Bacon, a Tory MP for South Norfolk and a member of

the public accounts committee, called on British Prime

Minister David Cameron to order a review of consumer

protection rules, it said.

PTI