Fraudsters may look to target contact centres, the latest research suggests.

A study by Iain Moir and George Weir, which is due to be published in the International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics, states that these consumer care complexes may be a route those trying to hack IT security systems might take.

The work says that 73 per cent of staff in contact centres, which deal with telephone, email, fax, offer IT support and website correspondence, have received suspicious calls.

In finance, 100 per cent reported that they had dealt with a potentially fraudulent enquiry.

"This supports the view that the financial services sector bears the brunt of fraud attacks," the researchers comment.

The study adds that as well as identify theft and IT security breaches, fraudsters have also attempted to bribe contact centre workers to obtain confidential information.

Earlier this month, Michael Parker, a spokesperson for the ID card and National Identity Register opposition campaign NO2ID, told BSC.org that a list of sensitive data on the public would be a target for criminals.

More than half of small businesses (53 per cent) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support. London-based Connect conducted the research in 2007.