Three former employees of a call center in India were arrested for misusing financial data and illegally withdrawing money from the accounts of Citibank customers, police officials said.

Nine associates of the men outside the call center were also arrested for defrauding four New York-based bank customers of nearly $350,000.

Citibank had outsourced some of its customer support operations to a company in Pune in western India. According to the police, the three former employees secured the personal information numbers of customers and used the wire transfer system to move the funds into fictitious accounts.

The crime was detected when customers began complaining about unauthorized money transfers. 

At least one cyber-expert believes that a crime of this nature could undermine the growth of outsourcing to companies in developing countries.