BPO executive sells data to Dawood gang
A BPO staff is found passing personal profiles of customers to members of the Dawood Ibrahim gang.
By Somit Sen, TNN |
MUMBAI: The pesky call centre employee trying to sell you a credit card or mobile phone has suddenly acquired more sinister dimensions: S/he could well be misusing the personal information. A 25-year-old call centre employee from a BPO in Tardeo did just that recently, passing on the personal profiles of customers to members of the Dawood Ibrahim gang.
On Friday, Mumbai crime branch arrested the executive, Hasan, for allegedly pilfering confidential personal information of mobile phone customers and passing it on to Dawood aide Fahim Machmach, who runs an extortion racket from Karachi.
Deputy police commissioner (crime) Dhananjay Kamlakar said the involvement of a call centre executive in an underworld extortion racket was a serious indicator of how the personal data of lakhs of customers of mobile phone and credit card companies was at ‘‘grave risk’’.
DCP (crime) Dhananjay Kamlakar said police will now put BPOs under their scanner. BPO heads will be asked to step up internal vigilance and verify the bonafides of employees before providing them with access to sensitive information. Hasan’s modus operandi was to provide the residential and office addresses of mobile phone customers to the Machmach gang at a fee of Rs 20,000 per address.
‘‘Machmach would give his cronies Iqbal, Mustaq and Salim Babu Qureshi the phone number for extortion,’’ said Kamlakar. ‘‘They would give Hasan the number and he would ferret out the data of the customer, who would then route them to Machmach.’’
Machmach would then call up his victims, who were surprised when the Karachi-based gangster rattled off information about them. ‘‘Machmach also posted his henchmen outside the residence and offices of victims to study their daily schedule,’’ Kamlakar said. Four such prominent businessmen (names not disclosed) from south Mumbai were threatened and asked to pay up amounts ranging between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1 crore.
Acting on a complaint by one of the businessmen, the anti-extortion team laid a trap and arrested Salim, Mustaq and Iqbal.
The last two are next-door neighbours of Machmach in Pathanwadi in Dongri. While Salim was earlier apprehended in Delhi, Mustaq has ten cases against him in the JJ, Pydhonie and Dongri areas and Iqbal is wanted in four serious offences. The three were on a monthly payroll of Rs 5,000 in the D-company, besides the incentives after every operation, the police said.
On Friday, Mumbai crime branch arrested the executive, Hasan, for allegedly pilfering confidential personal information of mobile phone customers and passing it on to Dawood aide Fahim Machmach, who runs an extortion racket from Karachi.
Deputy police commissioner (crime) Dhananjay Kamlakar said the involvement of a call centre executive in an underworld extortion racket was a serious indicator of how the personal data of lakhs of customers of mobile phone and credit card companies was at ‘‘grave risk’’.
DCP (crime) Dhananjay Kamlakar said police will now put BPOs under their scanner. BPO heads will be asked to step up internal vigilance and verify the bonafides of employees before providing them with access to sensitive information. Hasan’s modus operandi was to provide the residential and office addresses of mobile phone customers to the Machmach gang at a fee of Rs 20,000 per address.
‘‘Machmach would give his cronies Iqbal, Mustaq and Salim Babu Qureshi the phone number for extortion,’’ said Kamlakar. ‘‘They would give Hasan the number and he would ferret out the data of the customer, who would then route them to Machmach.’’
Machmach would then call up his victims, who were surprised when the Karachi-based gangster rattled off information about them. ‘‘Machmach also posted his henchmen outside the residence and offices of victims to study their daily schedule,’’ Kamlakar said. Four such prominent businessmen (names not disclosed) from south Mumbai were threatened and asked to pay up amounts ranging between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1 crore.
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Acting on a complaint by one of the businessmen, the anti-extortion team laid a trap and arrested Salim, Mustaq and Iqbal.
The last two are next-door neighbours of Machmach in Pathanwadi in Dongri. While Salim was earlier apprehended in Delhi, Mustaq has ten cases against him in the JJ, Pydhonie and Dongri areas and Iqbal is wanted in four serious offences. The three were on a monthly payroll of Rs 5,000 in the D-company, besides the incentives after every operation, the police said.
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