Hundreds of people were targeted by the scam with fraudsters posing as TalkTalk employees on the phone (file image) A major security breach has left thousands of TalkTalk customers at the mercy of fraudsters. Criminals have stolen account numbers, addresses and phone numbers from the phone and broadband firm’s computers. The details have been used in attempts to scam hundreds of customers so far, with one man having £2,800 stolen from his bank account. Masquerading as TalkTalk staff, the fraudsters phone their victims and try to make them disclose their bank details. It is not known how many of these customers were successfully tricked and had money stolen from them. The company, which has four million customers in all, has now sent an email to every one to warn them of the ruse. One of the techniques used by the fraudsters is to offer their victims a credit in return for their bank details. The customer then finds that their account has been emptied. The fraudulent callers are convincing because they have the customer’s details to hand. TalkTalk claims only a few thousand account details have gone astray. The data theft came to light when the company investigated a sudden rise in complaints about scam calls between October and December. TalkTalk insisted it had not been hacked and that the leak came instead from a third party contractor which had legitimate access to customer accounts. Customers have taken to the company’s internet forum to air their grievances. One, who received a call from a suspected scammer, said a more prominent warning about the hacking incident should have been given earlier and ‘not hidden away at the bottom of a lengthy marketing email’. ‘Hacking is a worldwide problem – it happens and you have to let us know immediately, not hide it away,’ he wrote. ‘My 85-year-old mother who is a TT customer could well have been taken in when the guy quoted all the correct info.’ Another angry customer wrote: ‘After months and months of being lied to by TalkTalk you are now finally admitting that you have had a security breach and that our details were accessed from your database.’ He said several members of staff had denied there was a problem, adding: ‘You should be ashamed of yourselves as it is your customers who have suffered and in some cases like my own, have suffered financially.’ Another wrote on the forum: ‘This internet provider must have the worst security and data protection for its customers in the business.’ The company says it was not hacked but that the details were stolen by a third party. It investigated following a new wave of complaints last year . A further disgruntled customer accused TalkTalk of conducting a damage limitation exercise: ‘It’s only taken them months to decide to come out and let customers know, or should I say forced to come out and let them know, as they had no option as word spread.’ Others highlighted problems of dealing with call centres in India. In a statement, TalkTalk said: ‘We have become aware that some limited, non-sensitive information about some customers could have been illegally accessed in violation of our security procedures. ‘We are aware of a small, but nonetheless significant, number of customers who have been directly targeted by these criminals and we have been supporting them directly.’ The firm said the problem had also been reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Graeme Smith had £2,800 stolen from him but claim neither his bank nor TalkTalk will reimburse him . Graeme Smith told yesterday how his bank and TalkTalk have refused to refund him £2,815 stolen from his current account. The 61-year-old HR expert was fooled by ‘extremely slick and believable’ fraudsters who claimed to be from a TalkTalk fraud department probing computer hacking. He was kept on the phone for hours by the team of three criminals and tricked into allowing them access to his computer to remove a bug supposedly left by a hacker. They told him he would receive a £250 credit for his trouble. When he later checked his account at a cash machine the £2,815 had gone. ‘I feel like a fool – I’m not naive, but they completely took me in,’ said Mr Smith, from Chester-le-Street, County Durham. ‘I’m extremely fed up and frustrated with TalkTalk and will be leaving them in future. 'They have not provided me with any support at all and I’ve been forced to wait for days for anyone to contact me.
Thieves stole addresses and phone and account numbers from company . Details were used in scam which saw one man's account robbed £2,800 . TalkTalk said they were not hacked and leak had come from third party . Outraged customers took to online forums to air their grievances .