PTI

London, Mar 20: Revealing a case of data theft by a call centre employee in India, a UK-based media group has unearthed a racket allegedly involved in selling credit card details of British customers in New Delhi.

During a sting operation, BBC reporters posing as fraudsters from London bought UK names, addresses and valid credit card details from one Saurabh Sachar, based in New Delhi. The investigation was broadcast in BBC's news bulletin yesterday.

The team went to India on a tip off after being put in touch with a man offering to sell stolen credit and debit card details. Two undercover reporters met the broker in a Delhi coffee shop for an encounter that was filmed secretly.

He said he could supply them with hundreds of credit and debit card details each week at a cost of 10 dollars a card. After the reporters agreed to initially buy the details of 50 cards, the man handed over a list of 14.

Sachar said the remainder would be sent later by e-mail. He claimed some of the numbers had been obtained from call centres handling mobile phone sales or phone bill payments.

After the team returned to the UK, Sachar continued to supply card details to one of the reporters through email.

Nearly all of the names, addresses and post codes sold to the reporters were valid. But most of the numbers were invalid -- often out by a single digit, the BBC said.