Thursday, June 23 2005 16:35 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: In a sensational report, a leading tabloid in London today (Jun 23, 2005) claimed that "crooked" call centre workers in India are flogging details of Britons' bank accounts, prompting the police to launch an investigation into the scandal.

'The Sun' claimed that its undercover reporter had sold the top secret information on a thousand accounts and numbers of passports and credit cards for about 2,750 pounds and was asked for another 275 pounds later (approximately a total of Rs 2.5 lakh).

A dodgy IT worker in Delhi gathered the data from call centres. He asked details - which would give criminals priceless access to the lives of unsuspecting victims, allowing them to clone credit cards and raid accounts, it said.

The 24-year-old IT worker obtained account numbers, bank card details, secret passwords and other information.

The City of London Police has launched an investigation after receiving a dossier of information from the journalist outlining a number of banks whose security may have been compromised.

The corrupt call centre worker boasted to the tabloid that he could sell as many as 200,000 account details a month.

Among the banks reportedly believed to be involved are NatWest and Barclays. But a spokeswoman for Barclays said she would be surprised if the company was involved as no personal customer data was held in India.

In an editorial column, the 'Sun' called the story "a scandal," adding British banks "will want guarantees from the Indian Government that the full rigour of the law will be used against the crooks."