Three of TalkTalk’s Indian Call Centre Staff Arrested for Scamming

Relations between UK broadband provider TalkTalk and sub-contractor Wipro, which operates their outsourced call centre(s) in India, have been strained after the ISP identified three customer support agents that appeared to be stealing personal data from subscribers and using it in scams.

Customers of TalkTalk are by now no strangers to the risk of scam callers and indeed many have been subjected to exactly that sort of con thanks to several major security breaches of the ISPs systems, with the latest Cyber-Attack occurring in October last year (here).

Immediately prior to last year’s breach there was also another significant incident via an attack on the Carphone Warehouse, which indirectly affected TalkTalk’s Mobile subscribers (here) and lest we not forget the major breach in 2014 that resulted in masses of fraudulent calls (here); although TalkTalk was significantly slower to admit to that one.

Since then the ISP has been attempting to repair their reputation and as such they’ve also been conducting an extensive security review. As part of that the ISP appears to have identified that not all of the fraudulent calls to their subscribers were the result of earlier cyber-attacks and some appear to have occurred due to the abuse of Wipro’s call centre staff in India.

The related investigation identified three members of Wipro’s call centre staff who appeared to have been involved in the abuse of TalkTalk’s private customer details and all have now been arrested by Police in Kolkata.

TalkTalk Statement

Following the October 2015 cyberattack, we have been conducting a forensic review to ensure that all aspects of our security are as robust as possible – including that of our suppliers.

As part of the review, we have been working with Wipro, (a call centre provider to TalkTalk and a number of other major businesses) and the local Police in Kolkata. Acting on information supplied by TalkTalk, the local Police have arrested three individuals who have breached our policies and the terms of our contract with Wipro. We are also reviewing our relationship with Wipro.

We are determined to identify and deal effectively with these issues and we will continue to devote significant resource to keeping our customers’ data safe. Data theft and scams are a growing issue affecting all businesses and they are notoriously difficult to investigate and prosecute. We are pleased that our investigations have yielded results, and will continue to do everything we can to tackle these crimes.

Meanwhile a spokesperson for Wipro went into damage limitation mode and said the firm was “committed to maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of all customer data and has a zero tolerance policy on security breaches. Working with our customer, Wipro reported potential illegal activity to the relevant law enforcement authority in India, as soon as it came to the company’s attention.”

British consumers already have a strong dislike of outsourced call centres, which don’t always appear able to deliver the same quality as their UK based counterparts. At the same time such remote services also require that our personal data be shipped outside of the country and managed abroad, which in this case hasn’t gone quite according to plan.

The situation has no doubt strained TalkTalk’s relationship with Wipro, although it’s the relationship with their subscribers that will no doubt be of more concern and that’s far harder to repair.