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Credit Card Fraud exposed by BBC
By Raghavendra Rao of Poornaprajna Cyber Quest
Right to Information Act, enacted by the Indian parliament in the year 2005 advocates transparency in public administration. Any information, except certain category of classified confidential information, sought for by any general public must be provided by the public authorities. The public who seek information under this Act for the purposes of public good are called activists of RTI Act. But, many persons misuse the information so obtained about a government official or an individual to black mail him and practice extortion. On one hand existence of this Act has lead to publication of information while on the other absence of an Act to protect private data has led to credit card fraud thrive in India. India does not have an effective legislation for protection of credit and debit cards data. Card holders are required to give out information of their credit card like card number, access code etc., while making purchases on line. This information is stealthily passed on to criminals for a price. Criminals make money by purchasing articles and withdrawing money unlawfully using the information. Many instances of passing of credit card information and cheating by Indian call centres to overseas agencies had been reported in the year 2008. The Indian government did not take effective steps to curb such scams. I narrate an incident of credit card fraud in India that has been exposed by British Broadcasting Corporation during the month of March, 2009. BBC reporters posing as fraudsters from London bought names, addresses and other details of valid credit cards of United Kingdom citizens from a New Delhi – based person who acted as a broker to arrange the sale of information. The BBC team went to India on a tip off after being put in touch with a man offering to sell stolen credit and debit card details. Two undercover reporters met the broker in a Delhi coffee shop for an encounter that was filmed secretly. The broker said he could supply them with hundreds of credit and debit card details each week at a cost of US $ 10 per card. After the reporters agreed to initially buy the details of 50 cards, the man handed over a list of 14 and said remainder would be sent later by e-mail. He revealed that some of the numbers had been obtained by him from call centres handling mobile phone sales or payments for phone bills. After BBC team returned to United Kingdom the person continued to supply card details to one of the reporters by e-mail. Nearly all the names, addresses and post codes sold were found valid but most of the numbers attached to them were invalid – often out by a single digit. However, about one in seven of the numbers purchased were active cards still in use by UK citizens and their owners could have been subjected to a huge fraud if the cards information had fallen into the hands of criminals. The team of reporters contacted the owners of these cards and warned them that their details were now being bought and sold in India. Three of the customers had bought a computer software package (Norton) by giving their credit card details to a call centre over the phone. Similar cases of money being illegally withdrawn in India using details of UK customers who use their cards while making purchases through the phone or online had come to light earlier. Unless there is a tough law to deal with criminals who sell confidential information to the detriment of the legitimate credit or debit card holder, such incidents are bound to repeat without any fear. Is possessing information about a man’s credit card an offence? Is parting with such information an offence? India can boast of passing legislation on cyber crimes in Information Technology Act, 2000. But it has not done anything to legally protect private data.
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