MphasiS gets cracking on theft case

MphasiS today said that it is working in close coordination with premier information technology association Nasscom, the cyber branch of the Pune police and its client bank (Citibank) to ensure swift action against all those involved in the bank fraud in Pune.

Last week three former MphasiS employees were arrested for allegedly stealing more than $350,000 from the accounts of four customers of Citibank.

Those former employees hacked the customers' accounts and transferred the money to their own accounts. They started doing so in the last week of February and continued with it till last week until they were caught.

An MphasiS release said the company was co-operating with the cyber police to ensure that the perpetrators of the crime are apprehended.

"MphasiS has taken this incident with all the seriousness it deserves. We have instituted our internal inquiry and taken short term and long term measures in consultation with Nasscom and the bank concerned, to protect our clients and their customers, and safeguard the security and integrity of the BPO business in India," it said.

This incident has evoked mixed response from players in the sector and its observers. Research and consulting firm Forrester Research had in its recent report stated that owing to this incident the call centre expansion in India will be hit by as much as 30 per cent.

They had indicated that this incident coupled with other factors such as attrition will dampen BPO growth rates especially in the call centre customer service space in the next 18 months.

Some domestic third-party players agreed with the research firm to an extent where they feel that an impact, if any, would be short term only.

This incident, they explained, heightened the need for security, regulation and stricter enforcement. They said "at the most there will be delay in decision making. Contracts that were being close to signed could be postponed. But this does not imply that outsouring will stop."

They hasten to add that companies across the globe have realised the advantages and benefits from outsourcing. "This will not change or stop," they added.

One positive factor that has emerged, added Prudential Process Management Services (PPMS - Prudential's BPO company) human resources director Atul Sharma, is the swiftness in action taken by the police in Pune.

"This," he says "demonstrates that the country is well placed to handle a situation such as this".