BPO Employee:  Master Key To Steal For Drugs
By Poonam

You would have seen media coverage of embezzlement by a couple of employees in India-based outsourcing centers, but one of the well-known international BPOs was battling a queer problem in-house. In the Gurgaon center of Convergys which was handing US processes, employees found that every now and then mobile sets and money kept in their own lockers vanished despite constant human and electronic vigilance. Two guards were always stationed in the entrance area of the floor where the lockers were put and TV cameras operated 24x7. Surprisingly, none of the lockers were ever found broken, and the valuables disappeared without any clue.

The security and administration departments regularly received complaints but could not crack the puzzle. Initially, people on the floor did not believe the victims. A few even joked calling these incidents as ghost acts. But it was a serious and burning issue.

One morning after her shift got over, Amita went to the locker area to take out her things but was shocked to see the lock was broken and sealed with a tape. Immediately she raised an alarm. The security guards at the entrance rushed in and soon the issue was escalated to the management. Amita refused to let the matter go without recovering Rs 2500 stolen from her locker. She persisted with the help of her team leader and raised a big hue and cry so that the issue gets noticed. Three days passed but there was no information or headway on Amita’s complaint. Still she didn’t lose hope.

One day, as usual the agents were logging for the shift. Suddenly they heard that a briefing has been called for the entire floor. When they all assembled, they were informed that the thief has been caught. What left them aghast was that the culprit was one among them. The team leader announced, ‘It’s Rohan. Yes, he is the thief! It was soon revealed that Rohan was the guy behind all the locker thefts, and he was into substance abuse. He used the money and valuables to buy drugs. Rohan was a very quiet guy and did not mingle with other agents on the floor. He made the master key using which he could open all the lockers. But in Amita’s case, he forgot to lock it back.

Now the question was, why was he never caught in camera? Rohan was smart, he did not do anything differently that would raise suspicion. He was always seen with other agents opening a locker, and no one could spot that he was actually keying into someone else’s locker. There the spying eyes of the guards and the cameras failed.

Finally, after the security caught him with the help of the police he was handcuffed, but not for long. A few questions remained unanswered. Did Amita get back her Rs 2500? Also, what happened to Rohan thereafter?

Well, the talk in the team was that Amita never got her money back but was satisfied at the culprit being caught. Given the high attrition rate and acute staff shortages across BPOs, Rohan managed to bag another job in another international BPO in Delhi.

The above happened sometime back, but these kinds of incidents are not new to the BPO’s