By Rob Douglas

Over at The Consumerist they’re running an Insiders column with an expose from a former Chase call center representative alleging that Chase customers were at increased risk of credit card fraud due to internationally outsourced call center security operations.

International call centers may be a security threat

The piece, How Outsourced Call Centers Are Costing Millions In Identity Theft, caught my attention because over the last decade I’ve spent countless hours working with final institutions in an attempt to increase security within call centers.  Unfortunately, banks and other businesses often focus on IT threats while paying little attention to data security breaches caused by social engineering and pretext.  The Consumerist column adds the additional problem that may arise when call center security operations are moved off-shore.

Reportedly, the former Chase employee - in describing the constant frustration encountered in securing one customer’s account from a particularly persistent identity thief – found that no matter what Chase’s domestic security operations did, the customer’s account was breached due to constant turnover and internationally outsourced security during the night.

Here’s part of what the former Chase employee had to say according to The Consumerist:

“Chase is a revolving door. If you work there longer than a year, you’re considered to have seniority. The few of us who knew this account was being raped could do nothing to protect it. Some newbie wouldn’t know about the situation and would let the thief have his way with the account. The US security department became aware of the issue and put blocks on the account as well as incredibly long notes that explicitly said to not remove the block for any reason at any time. But sure enough, over and over, the guy would call in overnight, talk to the out-sourced security, and the block would be removed. Again, they were only able to verify with him with information that he was already known to have, yet that never seemed to deter them from clearing him.”

As that snippet demonstrates, in addition to the problem of internationally outsourced call center security, there is a constant problem common to all call centers for all types of businesses.  That problem is turnover.

While understandable at one level, I’m always amazed that most businesses entrust critical customer account information to those with the least experience, the lowest pay and the highest turnover. 

Not exactly the best way to secure the lifeblood of any business.