24 June 2005
Police have launched an investigation following newspaper reports that an Indian call centre has been selling customer bank and credit card details.
Personal details and bank account information for 1,000 Britons were sold to an undercover journalist from the Sun for £3 each by a computer expert in Delhi, according to the newspaper.
The information, which the IT worker claimed he received from contacts in Indian call centres, included bank details on customers from British banks such as HSBC, Lloyds TSB and Barclays.
The reporter claims that among the information he bought were passwords, addresses, credit card details, driving licences, phone numbers and passports.
This kind of data represents a security risk, as it could be used to access the victims' accounts.
Police are trying to reassure customers that cases such as this are a relatively rare occurrence, though the call centre worker did claim he had access to 200,000 account details a month.
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