A case of cyber-fraud in an Indian call centre has prompted Nasscom - India's top IT body - to accelerate the training of police officers in cyber-security.
The Indian call centre industry was rocked recently by the arrest of 12 men for stealing US$350,000 from customers of Citibank. The men were former employees of MphasiS, a call centre for Citibank in Pune, western India.
During friendly conversations with four customers in the US, they obtained usernames and passwords. After leaving the company in December, the four ringleaders opened bank accounts using false names and used the internet to transfer money from the US accounts to their own.
'They went on a shopping spree, buying cars and expensive mobiles,' said D. N. Jadhav, Pune's police commissioner.
When the US customers noticed that something was amiss, they notified Citibank, which traced the transactions to the call centre.
'The Pune police acted swiftly, partly because we had just trained them in cyber-security so they can be effective in detecting such crimes. We're now going to offer this training nationwide. India has the laws, we need to make sure they are enforced,' said Sunil Mehta, Nasscom assistant vice-president.
The call centre industry in India is growing at a phenomenal rate as rising numbers of western companies outsource their back office work there to save money.