Thefts at HSBC Indian call centre

I saw this too. I noticed how they said a small number. For all we know it might have been 223,000 customers each having 1000 stolen and who of whom really needed it. I wonder how long it took to reimburse them all. This particular fraud is just the one they know about, i wonder how many more there are that are yet to be detected. This story can only increase the trend of bringing call centres for sensitive things like bank accounts etc back to UK shores. Sooner the better i think.

Ah, but it made me think - would the BBC have been as interested in publishing a similar story if the fraud/theft had been taking place in an English or British call centre? There is a strong possibility that the BBC are simply jumping on the bandwagon about the general disquiet about call centres in India.

I agree it could also happen in the uk but regardless of where its carried out these things should be reported. The banks need to be closely watched to make sure they do make these things public and not hidden under the carpet. I think thier motives in finding and announcing such fraud is more to do with protecting thier interests than thier customers. I wonder if they wrote to each customer and told them or whether they quietly put the money back in where perhaps a customer hadnt noticed the money had been stolen. If criminals stole 10 from a million customers i wonder if it would ever be detected or investigated.

Why? Don't people in the UK commit fraud as well?

Chris

Read the previous posts and you will see this was mentioned. Temptation may be higher in countries where a few pounds will buy much more than the uk etc. Fraud can happen anywhere of course its just a question where the most risk is. I also question whether they carry out the same security from fraud checks at uk call centres as abroad. Cant recall any uk call centre frauds that have been reported. (doesnt mean there hasnt been any of course)

Seemingly yes.

No it might not. They could hardly pass off a quarter of a million customers as a "small number".

That would be £223 million stolen, not £223 thousand.

What does this mean?

Oh, there is a trend, is there? I hadn't noticed. Much better not to have call centres at all, and let people call their branch.

Yes your right. a lot of customers money regardless.

Typo. should have read "and many of whom probably needed it"

Natwest and nationwide both advertise and make the most of the fact they only use uk call centres and powergen announced just last week they are returning to the uk and another parge company did the same recently.

Couldnt agree more with you. bring back personal customer service. Branches seem to have no power at thier disposal, everything is dictated by head office. Halifax is certainly like this.

Wrong bank Johnathan. This is hsbc announcing the fraud and that they had repaid customers. You may have been thinking of the bank manager in scotland who swindled

At 22:58:01 on 27/06/2006, linkuk delighted uk.finance by announcing:

I've heard it was 16 customers.

The question was, would the BBC be so interested if the fraud was taking place in the UK.

My link suggests that they would be, as they did report a fraud at another bank where it was taking place in Edinburgh rather than Bangalore.

As someone who works full time, I find call centres very useful. I agree they can be annoying but, in my opinion, the increase in opening hours makes it worth it.

Has everyone forgotten what is was really like when you had to use your branch? Remember spending most of your lunch hour in a cue because only one of four counters was open? Then, when you get to the front you are told that you need to speak to the whatever adviser who is at lunch, can you come back at 14:00? Of course you can't because you have to go back to work.

I suppose the ideal situation would be the option of phoning the branch, or perhaps a branch number with calls being diverted to the call centre out of office hours,

Gareth.

Surely most people can make phone calls while working, so that's no bar to phoning your branch instead of a call centre, and so no increase in opening hours is necessary.

You could always have written a letter.

The problem with that is that if they are going to put all the call centre technology in place which will allow call centres to do anything which a branch employee can do, then the centres may as well field daytime calls.

The real problem is not specific to banking, but to *everything*. So long as there is a culture in which almost everyone's working hours are the same, it will always be almost impossible for most full-timers to visit banks, shops, etc, and they will need non-working partners to do it for them. Nowadays, unfortunately, too many people don't actually have partners, and the partners of those who do, tend also work.

Perhaps the answer is that more of us should work less than full time. Something like 90% should do nicely.