Police in India have arrested a 'middleman' suspected of selling the personal financial data of UK customers to undercover journalists working on Channel 4's Dispatches programme.
According to a BBC report, Sushanto Chandok - allegedly one of two "middlemen" shown in the documentary - was arrested in Calcutta and has been detained in police custody for eight days.
The Channel 4 documentary, which aired last week, showed an undercover TV reporter infiltrating gangs in India that are allegedly selling customer data - including bank account and credit and debit card information - for as little as £8 per customer.
The "middlemen" also offered voice recordings of customers handing over credit card details, including security codes.
The data was allegedly sourced from an Indian call centre selling mobile phones and the criminals claimed to be able to supply information on hundreds of thousands of customers from a number of different contact centres.
The Dispatches programme prompted the UK's Information Commissioner's Office, which is responsible for enforcing the Data Protection Act, to launch an investigation into the security of personal financial data at call centres in India.
Earlier this year a worker at HSBC's Bangalore call centre was arrested on suspicion of selling the confidential bank account details of UK customers to fraudsters.