Indian police arrest 16 in $350,000 Citibank call center scam

[Blue Diadem]

By JEEJA PUROHIT
Associated Press Writer

April 16, 2005, 7:14 AM EDT

PUNE, India -- Police have arrested 16 people in western India for allegedly cheating four Citibank customers out of nearly $350,000, a police officer said Saturday.

Three former Citibank employees at a call center in the western city of Pune and 13 associates were charged with misusing financial data and illegally withdrawing money from the accounts of the New York-based customers, said Sanjay Jadhav, an assistant commissioner of police.

The call center employees befriended the customers by "talking pleasantly" to them, and then "these men obtained the personal identification number of the customers and used the international wire transfer system to move the funds," Jadhav said.

Two suspects visited Thailand between March 20 and March 24 and transferred the money into their bank accounts, Jadhav said.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--india-callcenterc0416apr16,0,190995.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

[Warpy]

1. Expect a lot more of this stuff

because India has very lax laws about confidentiality and bonding of employees. There have already been a few cases of extortion over medical records.

Offshoring sensitive stuff is ALWAYS a bad idea, folks. It's hard enough keeping it under control here.

[nine30]

2. Good !!

Maybe Citi will now realize the true cost of outsourcing.

[HockeyMom]

3. Closed my Citibank Account

after I called customer service and got India. Dumped the cable company too for the same reason.

[Ian David]

4. Some things improved when AOL outsourced Terms of Service people

I had already dumped AOL by then, but a friend that still uses it says Terms of Service enforcement has vastly improved once it was outsourced to India.

It used to be that there was selective enforcement based on the politics and sensibilities of partisan American AOL staffers.

Now the folks in India seem to just look at a chart and say, "Oh, yes. 'Fagot' is on the list of things not to call someone. I'll be a good script-droid and send the person a warning."

AOL-- and outsourcing-- both still suck for so many reasons though.

[bigluckyfeet]

16. I Cancelled Netscape last Week

and they are also in India,AOL owns them to.I almost had to be rude for her to just cancel and let me go.

[Eloriel]

8. Good for you! I dumped Earthlink when I found out

they'd outsourced nearly everything to India. Now they're running TV commercials hyping their employees -- makes me mad. :grr:

[Stinky The Clown]

17. Whenever I speak to customer service I ask where they are

The best ones I have found (for computers and software) are HP and Adobe; both in the US. I have Comcast for my cable and internet and they're in either the US or Canada (St. Johns, NL, maybe?) depending on the time of day you call them. We have our home mortgage and our investment property mortgages with Citi (they got sold to them a year or two ago). The few times we've had to call them, it seems the mortgage stuff is still US based

[Moderator]

5. kick to combine

[Ruby Romaine]

6. 16 Arrested in India Call-Center Scam

PUNE, India -- Police have arrested 16 people in western India for allegedly cheating four New York-based Citibank customers out of nearly $350,000, a police officer said Saturday.

Three former employees at a call center in the city of Pune and 13 of their associates have been charged with misusing financial data and illegally withdrawing money from the accounts of the New York-based customers, said Sanjay Jadhav, an assistant commissioner of police.

Nine of the suspects were in custody and being questioned for their role in the money transfer fraud, while seven were remanded to judicial custody, he said.


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/apbiz_story.asp?category=1310&slug=India%20Call%20Center

[Deja Q]

7. ROFL. Money and its repercussions are universal.

[ikojo]

9. Not only should people be concerned about this kind of stuff

but they should also be concerned about the amount of medical information that is being handled overseas and away from US HIPAA laws and regulations regarding confidentiality. Many insurance companies are using overseas customer service reps to answer questions about health insurance (I've heard a rumor that United Healthcare uses CS reps in Jamaica)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/10/22/MNGCO2FN8G1.DTL

A tough lesson on medical privacy
Pakistani transcriber threatens UCSF over back pay

David Lazarus
Wednesday, October 22, 2003

A woman in Pakistan doing cut-rate clerical work for UCSF Medical Center threatened to post patients' confidential files on the Internet unless she was paid more money.To show she was serious, the woman sent UCSF an e-mail earlier this month with actual patients' records attached.

The violation of medical privacy - apparently the first of its kind - highlights the danger of "offshoring" work that involves sensitive materials, an increasing trend among budget-conscious U.S. companies and institutions.

U.S. laws maintain strict standards to protect patients' medical data. But those laws are virtually unenforceable overseas, where much of the labor- intensive transcribing of dictated medical notes to written form is being exported.

[ReaderSushi]

10. Oh please...

Like this kind of stuff never happens here. Fraud is rampant in all levels of the finance world. Outsourcing has nothing to do with this at all.

[w4rma]

11. Outsourcing has *everything* to do with lax security and privacy. (nt)

[Bhaisahab]

12. yeah...

... but this is just the kind of story that will rejuvinate anti-outsourcing groups, not to mention deliver a BIG dent in the credibility of India's outsourcing industry.

For instance, check out this opinion piece in the Indian Express:

BPO shockwave
Most BPOs have banned cellphones in the workplace, blocked personal e-mails and monitor every movement on close circuit TV. And yet, despite having elaborate security procedures in place, MphasiS BPO couldn’t detect a fraud which involved some past and present employees of its Pune centre. The quartet — and their accomplices — swindled $425,000 from US customers of Citibank, a prized client, raising one crucial question: how will the incident impact the sunrise BPO industry?

While many BPOs put on a brave front, passing it off as a ‘‘one-off’’ case, others, unwilling to come on quote, admit there is nervousness in the industry. ‘‘I would be wrong if I say this incident has had no impact on the industry. There is some concern in the industry,’’ says a senior official of one of the top IT majors, which has a large BPO operation.

continued: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=68557

[physioex]

15. Point taken......

However your posts misses a few points. First of all there is no protection given by the law enforcement and judicial system in India. They are extremely corrupt, the judges and police officials have all been bought off. A person could carefully plan this, pay off the officals and get away to a neighboring country quite easily.

The laws and enforcement in this country are more stricter and the person would have a harder time escaping.

[DrDebug]

13. And the American Express Call Center...

...is located in the Philipinnes. All creditcard transactions are handled in the Philipinnes, because it's cheaper.

http://www.amexsux.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=customer;action=display;num=1015411230

[davidwhite0570]

14. and also one of the main credit bureau callcenters went to

the phillipines it used to be handled by choicepoint and starts w and big E anyone want to guess?