Cover Story
customer has a relationship with
the store. The store outsources or
“THE TECHNOLOGY TO DO THIS IS RIGHT
off-shores but there is no brand
THERE. IT MAY COST £5 MILLION, BUT IT
relationship between the call
centre and the retailer. There are WILL SAVE £50 MILLION IN THE LONG RUN
no or very few checks on personnel
working in those centres. You
IN REDUCED FRAUD.”
would therefore have to be crazy
to do it and any consumer should
check on this before they pass any Closing the subject in true New year-old Robinson knows what he is
sensitive information over the Yorker fashion Robinson lapses talking about and who he is telling.
phone or online.” into time less Anglo Saxon to get The broadcaster, speaker and writer
Robinson argues that the his point across. of more than 600 published stories
growth of the call centre culture “You would have to be a throughout his life, has a lot to say
militates against adequate checks f****** idiot to do it.” and will not be silenced, even by
and measures being put in place. In February, Robinson hit the the shadiest fraudsters his prolific
“In Mumbai alone there are at headlines again after financier and words shed unwelcome light upon.
least two call centres per week cricket mogul Sir Allen Stanford The constant commentary from the
opening up. Why are retailers surrendered to the FBI. He claimed author of the Laundrymen keeps
entering into these relationships? that law enforcement agencies in the dirty linen in the public eye
What protection do their the US had raised suspicions about with the optimistic hope that
customers have? I have to say that him for 15 years. He implied that business, including the multi-billion
such outsourcing is irresponsible Stanford could lift the lid on a lot dollar retail industry will clean up
and is a time bomb of nuclear Anglophile of murky goings on in the off- its own act and take the right
proportions waiting to go off – I Jeffrey shore world. preventative steps to combat fraud
guarantee if will happen and then Robinson Labelled as ‘the world’s most rather than carp on about its
the reputational risk will be after the important financial journalist’ by destructive force after the event.
unfathomable.” Red Eye the British Bankers Association, 64- RF
ISSUE 4 AUGUST 2009 • 17
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