Information security has emerged as a significant concern for banks, mobile phone companies and other businesses that use call centers or business process outsourcing, or BPO. There have been instances of theft of personal data reported from call centers.
Britain's Financial Services Authority examined standards in India in April 2005 and the Banking Code Standards Board audited eight India-based call centers in 2006, handling more than a million calls per month from the UK. the examinations did not extend to Africa-based call centers staffed by workers of Indian origin.
The BCSB report stated that "Customer data is subject to the same level of security as in the UK. High risk and more complex processes are subject to higher levels of scrutiny than similar activities onshore."[1]
India's NASSCOM has said that they take breach in security extremely seriously and will assist the police in their probe.
There are three identifiable types of illicit activities concerning fraud emanating from call centers:
While items 1 and 2 are mostly subject to police action, call centres can use internal procedures to minimise risk. Such mitigation measures include but are not limited to:
Every call center is undoubtedly unique, as are organization’s requirements. But in nearly all cases, a biometric-based multi-modal platform solution for the call center can dramatically improve fraud prevention. By bringing seamless, multi-modal biometrics to your customers, agents and IVR, you prevent fraud losses, reduce your average handle times, contain more calls within IVR, and deliver markedly better customer experiences from any phone, anywhere.[3]