GP customer data breached twice in 4 months

Mobile phone operator Grameenphone on Saturday claimed that none of its customer data was compromised though law enforcers arrested GP’s vendors in two incidents within four months over selling confidential information and hacking phones to embezzle money.

Cases were lodged with the police against the largest mobile phone operator and its third-party contactors who handle confidential customers information.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Wednesday arrested a three-member gang, vendors of GP, for embezzling around Tk1 crore through the operators’ network.

Some officials of Genex Infosys Limited and Wipro Limited, two third-party contactors of GP, were involved in the scam, said the CID.

Three officials of the two companies — Shuvrodeb Chakraborty, Raju Sarker and Mizanur Rahman — were arrested in this regard on Wednesday night.

Sources said the trio was call centre employees who were dealing with GP customer calls and through post-paid user connections they embezzled around Tk1 crore in two operations.

“GP’s strong control mechanism and system have identified the fraud swiftly without any customer data being compromised. GP has been following the law and collaborating with law enforcement authorities to combat such criminal act. GP maintains zero-tolerance for criminal and unethical behaviours by anyone,” the operator said in a statement.

“Grameenphone is thankful to authorities for taking action against the miscreants with illegal motives to defraud the company financially,” it added.

Earlier in December last year, the police filed a case against GP and another of its customer care official, Rubel Mahmud Anik, as he was found selling confidential data of GP users to a cartel.

Along with Anik, Parvin Akhter and her sister Shefali Begum and a travel agency staff Shamsudduha Khan alias Babu, were arrested for extortion after stealing information from GP database.

Asked about the issue, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission senior assistant director Zakir Hossain Khan said, “As we have been informed of the matter, after consultation with our relevant department we will take action as per law. Customer protection cannot be compromised.”