- Feb 13, 2017
- 1,486
TalkTalk customers are being targeted by an industrial-scale fraud network in India, according to whistleblowers who say they were among hundreds of staff hired to scam customers of the British telecoms giant.
The scale of the criminal operation has been detailed by the three sources, who say they were employed by two front-companies set up by a gang of professional fraudsters.
The sources describe working in "call centres" in two Indian cities.
They say as many as 60 "employees" work in shifts in each office, phoning TalkTalk customers and duping them into giving access to their bank accounts.
The whistleblowers say they were given a script in which they were told to claim they were calling from TalkTalk.
They say they then convinced victims to install a computer virus.
A separate team would use that virus to gain access to victims' online banking, they add.
While it has not been possible to independently verify their claims, the sources have given highly detailed accounts of the scammers' tactics, which correlate very closely with previous reports of fraud targeting TalkTalk customers.
The software they named also matches that identified by TalkTalk in its own website guidance on what to watch out for in a scam call.
In addition, a victim of the fraud shown the call centre script has confirmed it matched the one read out to her when she was conned out of £5,000.
TO BE CONTINUED
The scale of the criminal operation has been detailed by the three sources, who say they were employed by two front-companies set up by a gang of professional fraudsters.
The sources describe working in "call centres" in two Indian cities.
They say as many as 60 "employees" work in shifts in each office, phoning TalkTalk customers and duping them into giving access to their bank accounts.
The whistleblowers say they were given a script in which they were told to claim they were calling from TalkTalk.
They say they then convinced victims to install a computer virus.
A separate team would use that virus to gain access to victims' online banking, they add.
While it has not been possible to independently verify their claims, the sources have given highly detailed accounts of the scammers' tactics, which correlate very closely with previous reports of fraud targeting TalkTalk customers.
The software they named also matches that identified by TalkTalk in its own website guidance on what to watch out for in a scam call.
In addition, a victim of the fraud shown the call centre script has confirmed it matched the one read out to her when she was conned out of £5,000.
TO BE CONTINUED
