Karnataka   

HSBC scam: U.K. recipient of data is of Indian origin

K.V. Subramanya

Call centre executive got job on forged certificates

BANGALORE: Investigation into the data theft scam involving an executive of the Bangalore-based call centre of the Europe's leading bank, HSBC Holdings, has revealed that the man in the U.K., who received data from the call centre executive and carried out the fraudulent transactions, is of Indian origin.

Sources in the Corps of Detectives (CoD), which is investigating the 233,000-pound heist, told The Hindu on Thursday that the arrested call centre executive Nadeem Kashmiri had passed on the data to Ershad, a third generation Indian living in the U.K.

Nadeem Kashmiri had allegedly accessed personal data, security information and debit card information of some of the customers in the U.K. Subsequently, he passed on the data to Ershad for conducting fraudulent transactions through ATM and debit cards and telebanking services, the sources said.

Ascertaining Ershad's antecedents, whether he is associated with a mafia or a terrorist group, is the focus of the investigation now. The U.K. police have also registered six cases on complaints by HSBC Holdings and its customers. "The U.K. police are also at it and we have obtained his telephone number," the sources said.

They do not rule out the possibility of some other employees of the bank having connived with Nadeem Kashmiri. "We are going into details of each case and a technical team from HSBC is assisting us," the sources said. Nadeem Kashmiri, who got Rs. 4,000 for each account data he passed on to Ershad, had got the money transferred into a friend's bank account here. He had got Rs. 80,000 and the entire amount is still in his friend's account, the sources said.

Chinks in recruitment system

The incident has brought to the fore the chinks in the recruitment system followed by call centres/BPOs here, most of whom outsource the recruitment process to placement agencies.

Nadeem Kashmiri, who was recruited by a placement agency hired by HSBC, had obtained the job on the strength of forged marks cards. He had forged a photocopy of a friend's BBM marks card, the sources said.

As the call centre/BPO staff handle financial transactions of costumers abroad, the agencies concerned should also check the antecedents of the candidates before recruiting them, police say. "Those indulging in financial terrorism can easily plant their operatives in a call centre/BPO and break the security system of financial institutions," the sources said. When The Hindu made random enquiries with some employees of call centres here, they claimed that many of their colleagues were college dropouts who had managed to get the job on the basis of forged certificates.

The spoken English skill of the candidate is the only criterion the placement agencies look for while recruiting the staff.

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