Where do the UK bank phone scammers get their info ?

http://www.wetherbynews.co.uk/news/local/bank-scam-warning-after-money-stolen-1-6639412

Police have issued a warning to bank customers following a telephone scam in which bogus bank officials have made account holders transfer large amounts of money into bogus account.

This is a very common and widespread fraud in the UK and involves either convincing the usually elderly target victim to divulge their card details and possibly even collecting the card, or transferring funds in to another account.

With the number of recent high profile hacking incidents it's interesting to speculate where the scammers may be getting their information from and this has fascinated me, as I have an interest in fraud and a background in banking.

Of course there could be many places but, in view of the nationwide nature of this fraud, many obvious possibilities can be excluded. It's very apparent that the information is coming from a nationwide database with extensive details including contact information and ages as predominantly the elderly are being targeted.

I have been scanning every news article involving this scam and I notice this from the article I refer to.

Detective Constable Amanda Bostwick of Selby CID, said: “The suspects in these cases are very convincing and knew who the customers banked with and in some cases, how much they had in their accounts.”

Obviously it's not possible to draw conclusions about every other scam from just one or several instances. However the nature of UK banking databases are such that one person can easily access such information and it's the only place that detailed financial information about accounts can be obtained.

For marketing purposes banks also make such information easily filtered for demographic specifics such as age. I can't make the accusation and it's an issue that the police would be able to determine quite easily, but it's a worrying possibility, particularly if accounts within the same bank are being used to launder funds.

Even with brief details it's usually possible to make an educated guess as to how any fraud is performed, but a few extra details can confirm suspicions. I don't know which banks are involved, so I can't accuse any specific bank but when fraudsters are able to quote account details and balances, along with specifically targeting one demographic class of people, that's what banks do for marketing purposes and the lowliest call centre operative has access to this information wherever they are based, in the UK or abroad.

If bank details are leaking from an insecure source then this is a potentially catastrophic problem and the police should be aware of it from the accounts being targeted. The most significant matter being that victims should be reimbursed by their bank if their personal information has been compromised by the bank.