APACS, the U.K. trade association for the payments industry, said in a report released on Thursday that card fraud losses totaled £609.9 million (US$874 million) last year. There are two main areas of fraud. First, criminals use the numbers of stolen credit cards in transactions not protected by chip and PIN (personal identification number), specifically via the Internet, phone and regular mail. The second type involves the physical use of stolen credit cards abroad by criminals in countries yet to upgrade to chip and PIN.

The outsourcing of work to Indian call centers and BPO (business process outsourcing) companies has been often criticized in the U.K. Besides cutting into jobs in the U.K., outsourcing to India could compromise the U.K.'s tough data protection laws, critics have said.

The Amicus trade union in the U.K., now merged into Unite trade union, warned in 2004 that offshoring is "an accident waiting to happen."

Indian call centers claim that they have introduced technology and restrictions to prevent data theft. Offices are under electronic surveillance, and employees are not allowed to carry in paper or mobile phones, and they can't access the Internet while at work.

There have been some complaints lodged with the Indian police in the past about data thefts at call centers, but the Indian call center industry holds that the incidents are far fewer than in other countries including the U.K. and the U.S.