Brokers taking data theft racket to alarming levels, warn Elders

The issue of data theft found an echo in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday when Members told the House about the alleged theft of personal data from banks and insurance companies by data brokers. The members of the Elder's House also claimed that there are data brokers who were are selling personal information to companies for an amount ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000.

During the Zero Hour, Samajwadi Party (SP) member Sanjay Seth said, "Some data broker companies have mushroomed in recent years, who are engaged in selling personal data to other companies illegally and making money out of it."

"After getting personal details such as address, phone number, e-mail ID, income, economic status, several companies, including banks and insurance firms, lay a trap by offering lucrative offers by making calls and befooling citizens," Seth said.

Citing recent media reports, the SP member said, "There are several reports of data brokers offering credit card details of above 1 lakh people residing in Delhi, NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, etc at just Rs 7,000. How these personal information are being availed by banks, insurance companies is a matter of serious concern."

Urging the government to formulate a stringent data protection policy at earliest, Seth said, "The cases of such frauds are on the rise as the Reserve Bank of India has registered 25,000 cases of fraud in the year 2015-16. The stringent policy is needed to act tough against perpetrators."

Supporting the issue, another SP Member Naresh Aggrwal said that he had also got such phone calls and the callers never disclosed where they had got the numbers from. "If no protection act is being formulated, fraudsters sitting in Malaysia, Dubai, etc would continue to dupe people of the country," Aggrwal said.

Seth's issue of public concern was supported by Alok Tiwari, Neeraj Shekhar, Surendra Singh Nagar and Chandrapal Singh Yadav.