"The BPO fraud, which happened in Pune is an isolated incident and this will not affect the prospects of Indian BPO industry. However, the Indian industry needs to be vigilant to prevent incidents like this," McKinsey & Co Principal Jayant Sinha said in Mumbai.
Some employees of BPO company Mphasis had stolen passwords and logins of foreign clients, which were used to transfer money to their personal accounts. When the customers complained, MPhasis detected the fraud and sacked the employees, who have been arrested.
MphasiS gets cracking on theft case
Sinha said though this incident would not have any serious impact on Indian BPO industry but frequent incidents of this kind would prompt foreign clients to "rethink" about their offshoring destination strategy.
TWS Holdings chief executive officer Rakesh K Kaul said this incident cautions Indian BPO industry to be vigilant against these kinds of frauds and has to invest more on system platforms to build safeguard mechanisms.
"Fraud is not a new phenomenon and is part of any industry. There will be bad apples with good apples. These kind of frauds happened frequently in the US," Kaul said.
Mastek chairman Ashank Desai said this incident should be a learning experience for Indian BPO companies and these 'blips' are bound to happen as the industry was evolving.