indian call centres sell off australian personal information

[paul7v7]

bit of a worry if you ask me

Tens of thousands of Australians are at risk of computer fraud because their personal information is being made available illegally by workers inside call centres based in India.

Tonight's Four Corners program reveals a black market in information held by Indian call centres.

The program was able to get hold of personal details through a journalist who is working undercover and cannot be identified.

"We were absolutely amazed at how easy it was to buy data. And secondly, the free flow of data was just astonishing," the journalist said.

"A good analogy would be paedophile or child porn sites on the Internet. If you're one of them, you swap your pictures with their pictures, that's how the trade carries on."

The undercover journalist was also behind the recent sting operation by Britain's Sun newspaper, which bought the bank details of 1,000 British people for just $7 each.

"You can't go to these people and ask for 10 names. The minimum, it seems to us, the minimum quantity they will deal with is 1,000 names," the journalist said.

The Australian names requested by Four Corners had a price tag of $10 each.

It was offered ATM numbers, passport numbers and credit card details - enough information for hackers to assume the identity of Australians online.

The program did not go ahead with the purchase but a sample of identifications included the personal details of Diane and Keith Poole.

Ms Poole says the revelation leaves her feeling vulnerable.

"I'm mortified because it leaves us fairly open, doesn't it?" she said.

Mr Poole says a call centre operator working for Australian company Switch Mobile, asked him an unusual question.

"They asked did I have a passport. I said, 'Yes I have a passport' but I said I wasn't prepared to give the number on that," he said.

Switch Mobile spokesman Damien Kay says passport information is not needed.

"The issue of personal information being sold goes way outside of our authorisation in the contracts that we have," he said.

He says Switch is devastated that privacy laws are being flouted by its representative and has since terminated the contract it had with its telemarketing company.

Cyber crime is described by former World Bank cyber intelligence expert Tom Kellerman as the most pervasive crime on the planet.

"Organised crime has created a business model around hacking," he said.

The threat of financial loss to a victim of identity fraud is bad in itself, but there is an even darker side to the crime.

Personal details on any number of databases can be accessed and used for terrorist activities, which could include getting passports issued, establishing lines of credit or arranging fake IDs for people working undercover.

- The full Four Corners report can be seen on ABC TV at 8:30pm tonight.