Call centre theft may bust India's BPO boom

rediff.com: "A Forrester Research report has warned that what looks like just another theft might curb the booming Indian BPO industry's growth by as much as 30 per cent.

Forrester said the arrest of three former employees of MphasiS BFL's BPO operation Msource, and nine others, on April 6 in Pune -- for allegedly stealing over $350,000 from four Citibank customers -- has sent shock waves through the Indian IT-enabled services sector.

This, coupled with skyrocketing call centre attrition rates, will severely dampen BPO growth rates, especially in the call centre customer service space in the next 18 months, said the Forrester report, authored by John C McCarthy, along with G Oliver Young and William Martorelli.

The arrested MphasiS staff members acquired the passwords to end customer accounts and transferred the money to their own accounts opened under fictitious names. The fraud occurred over a period of five weeks from the end of February to early April."