Indian call centre credit card 'scam' exposed An undercover investigation by the BBC has exposed evidence of the theft of credit card details by workers at an Indian call centre used by security giant Symantec. A BBC reporter posing as a fraudster bought allegedly stolen but valid UK card details from a Delhi-based man, who denies any wrongdoing. Three of the victims of …
India sucks. It is rapidly becoming a hotbed of organised crime due to greed and poor law enforcement.
When you introduce the possibility of easy money to those who have always had to struggle to make ends meet, is there any real surprise when they grasp the opportunity to rip off our financial details, or to spam us with offers of crap SEO, fake drugs or fraudulent business schemes?
Sure, the call centre manager needs to spend some time enjoying the inside of an Indian prison. The call centre provider should lose their contract. But more importantly, any UK company that has suffered a data breach should itself be investigated under the DPA. What did they *think* was going to happen with this personal data when they entrusted it to some third world hell-hole?
As in, there's nothing in Indian law that means you would be prosecuted for identity theft, and there's only ever been one successful prosecution under what little laws exists anyway...
There's also something painfully ironic about having your card stolen when you are renewing your anti-virus software ...
And no, I'm not going slag of Semantec, I will leave that job to others.
What's this got to do with Symantec's security? According to the BBC, it was in an external call centre who I bet do similar work for hundreds of other companies but it wouldn't make such a good "news" story if it the people affected had been paying their electric bill,
Good old predictable Symantec baiting is alive and well................
Symantec saved a couple of quid by moving their call centers to the cheapest area of labor. I would suspect that a class action lawsuit might make them consider that sometimes the lowest cost workforce doesn't really measure up to the stated savings.
Not only do you have id theft to contend with, but also a lower customer satisfaction rating.
Ever wonder why Dell split the call center duties between the US and India on their US sold laptops? Cheaper consumer kit was handled in India. More expensive business kit was handled in the US. Gee I wonder why.... ;-)
The pirate flag because US corporations need to remember that outside of the US, US Laws are pretty much unenforcable and you're at the mercy of the 'host nations' and their laws.
at least in the US:
According to US law, once you have reported the loss or theft of your credit card, you have no more responsibility for unauthorized charges. Further, your maximum liability under federal US law is $50 per credit card -- and many credit card issuers will even waive that fee for good customers.
buying with a credit card is the safest way
Guess Madoff must've been leading a rather frugal life...
Same shit, different toilet. But it's entirely possible his customers would give him a higher rating.
Given the current situation though, I expect most of the stolen cards would've become bad loans and charged off subsequently...
Any customer who believes they may have been impacted by this situation should email their contact information to: callcentre@symantic, making sure they include their credit card numbers.
And, by the way... At least this "third-world hell hole" (I live in India) didn't take the world to the brink of (and possible into) complete financial ruin.
This country is still relatively economically healthy. It may not be long before global ideas on what countries constitute the third world get revised.
If there weren't so many customer PROBLEMS that needed resolved in the FIRST place (due to crappy programming that makes the apps' built-in functions, such as renewal and subscription info, not always work correctly or not always update/sync correctly), Symantec would NOT NEED to cut corners by hiring cheap labor. Duh.
- Norton customer until January 2009. Finally had enough!
Yes, I have been to India and yes, I have seen the shit the *majority* of the population live in. Sure there are the relatively privileged few and will no doubt deny poverty exists in India. Of course the country is not hit by the current financial crisis - it has always BEEN in financial crisis!! Why is the population queuing to get into the UK? It doesn't take a genius to work that out.
The answer is to stuff the poor quality call centres and off-shore resourcing in India and bring them back to shores where there is some semblance of law and order, the quality of work a tad higher and where the local resources at least know the lie of the land.
Pretty rich, coming from a country of extremes in itself: a majority of binge drinking, benefit scrounging illiterate chavs and relatively few champagne guzzling, market manipulating bankers, hurtling towards political, economic and social irrelevance.. And yes, you have some protozoans. Sorry, politicians.
I'm Indian. Lived in London for 8 years (hedge funds mainly). No recourse to public funds - children studied privately, health services were private. And I paid my taxes. Loads of it. Of course I made money - that's why I went to London. And returned to India on an expat package - to make more money here. I'd've gone to any country had I spotted an opportunity. Similar to the way the Empire was built.
And you might know, your "Developed World" fund managers were queuing up to invest in India until last year.
If it makes you feel any better, the bulk of your industries are owned by Indians - including automobile and steel. We'll soon own your banks. And we'll own your telcos as well. And your country, for what's it's worth. Better get used to the idea of paying us rent, or find another planet. I forget, you don't have a space industry to go to another planet. I doubt you have any industry left, apart from binge drinking.
I think the concept of nationality is bollocks - lines on maps drawn by people with vested interests. I believe in having a good time and of course, in identifying opportunities to harvest economic profits. But I do like holding up a mirror to people who diss other countries - take a good look.
Deli mafia? This is quite obviously one chap, copying card numbers when he's at work.
If this really is the cutting edge of organised crime in India, as the article might have you believe, then I think the outsourcers can rest easy.
The prices are ridiculous, the article says the quality was dire (bad digits) and the guy couldn't even supply more than 14 up front.
This is not a professional operation, it's a bloke with a pen and paper frantically scribbling the things down when the bosses aren't watching...
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