Ip Relay Warning

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ScamBuster

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As a Relay Operator I feel obligated to advise everyone in the Deaf Community what is happening in our Relay Centers that you may not be aware of. Have you ever called a business using Relay and been hung up on? Well let me explain part of the reason. All IP RELAY Centers (MCI, AT&T, SPRINT) are processing thousands of calls per week from West Africa to U.S. Businesses. We generally are on these calls for an hour at a time while numerous numbers are dialed so these West Africans attempt to order T-Shirts, Laptops, Athletic shoes, Sewing Machines, Inkjet cartridges (and the list goes on an on). These people calling are NOT deaf and even worse they are using STOLEN credit card information to purchase these items and have them shipped to West Africa before the business determines the fraud. These scammers are clogging up Relay center and keeping legitimate deaf users in queue while they use us to commit their crimes. Our companies tell us we can't do anything about it, that we must process the call and remain completely transparent because we can't possibly know if the call is legitimate or not and therefore we can not break confidentiality. BUT we can tell, usually before we even dial the first number. But even after it has become apparent because the caller uses multiple names and credit cards and addresses with different businesses we still are not permitted to end the call, report it or intervene in any way. We must continue to process the calls and assist the criminal. In the meantime you wait for a free operator to make a call. Many businesses are now refusing ALL calls from Relay because they have been ripped off for thousands and thousands of dollars via IP Relay and these scammers. I call out now to everyone in the Deaf Community to visit my Message Board as well. View the comments from other Relay Operators who took a job to service the deaf community and are now working 8 hours a day to service criminals. The telephone companies hide behind the confidentiality laws so they can receive the government cost recovery dollars and make millions at the expense of the Deaf community and the tax payers. Please post your comments on my message board. A LOT of the relay operators would like to see your input to this!!! Thank you!
http://ip_relay_scams.aimoo.com
 
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Yeah, last week I was doing some research and it came up which got me curious to read through. I was going to post about this here and elsewhere but never got around to it. Thanks for sharing this with us. :)
 
ScamBuster said:
The telephone companies hide behind the confidentiality laws so they can receive the government cost recovery dollars and make millions at the expense of the Deaf community and the tax payers.
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That doesn't make any sense. If the businesses won't accept calls from the relay services, deaf people will no longer use 7-1-1 or any relay business. Then those companies lose their profits.

The telephone companies also lose their reputation as the kind of company to do business with. The loss of reputation can kill any company, look how hard WorldCom/MCI is struggling to untarnish it's name.

I bet the telephone companies are just as frustrated as you are, and are hampered by both the law and by the limitations of technology. After all, the internet is the great privacy screen, ain't it?
 
oh Wow. I had no idea I used the Ip Relay all the time.. Now I got to watch myself...
 
i am well aware of that -- and i am also aware the relay operators really are unable to do anything due to confidentality -- but unless theyre given a search warrant for all recorded converstations in their computers is when they will give up the information in cooperation with the local/state police but yea scambuster is right -- they really just simply cannot do anything
 
How about people being proactive? Like when you are on the relay trying to place a order, ask if there is another way to order without using the phone?
Or telling the business to ask for proof of id in some way (SS #, drivers license #, etc), and providing it?
I know it is a hassle, but if it becomes more difficult to do this scam, then the scam no longer will work.
 
That is Why I have to watch myself I don't want to give out too much Personal about myself Knowing there are Scams everywhere.
 
yea i agree with u Cheri always best to be protective of ur IDing information as much as possible --

ive visited Scambuster's message boards and read some quite interesting posts by the Relay Operators themselves and i applaud them for trying their best in dealing with scams that occurs too often while also dealing with legit calls from deaf/speech impaired folks -- i found that some of the criminals just simply doesnt know HOW to use the relay right :rofl: a surefire giveaway!

using GA repetively and using "plz" instead of "please" or "pls" as is the usual standard in the deaf community on the TTYs or when calling via relay -- one example is: "plz call xxx-xxx-xxxx gagaga" was posted there :rofl:
 
Dennis said:
That doesn't make any sense. If the businesses won't accept calls from the relay services, deaf people will no longer use 7-1-1 or any relay business. Then those companies lose their profits.

The telephone companies also lose their reputation as the kind of company to do business with. The loss of reputation can kill any company, look how hard WorldCom/MCI is struggling to untarnish it's name.

I bet the telephone companies are just as frustrated as you are, and are hampered by both the law and by the limitations of technology. After all, the internet is the great privacy screen, ain't it?
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Because the general public isn't aware of this they have nothing to fear yet, so long as the rake in the millions of dollars for this service. And yes, it is tarnishing their name, so it makes no sense to me. But I've spoke to upper management; they are not and don't intend to do anything proactively.
 
Fly Free said:
i am well aware of that -- and i am also aware the relay operators really are unable to do anything due to confidentality -- but unless theyre given a search warrant for all recorded converstations in their computers is when they will give up the information in cooperation with the local/state police but yea scambuster is right -- they really just simply cannot do anything
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No voice user or text is recorded or saved, ever!. Once you disconnect from Relay - State or IP, all information is gone forever! That's what makes it so confidential and why the scammers are using it.
 
bree said:
How about people being proactive? Like when you are on the relay trying to place a order, ask if there is another way to order without using the phone?
Or telling the business to ask for proof of id in some way (SS #, drivers license #, etc), and providing it?
I know it is a hassle, but if it becomes more difficult to do this scam, then the scam no longer will work.
Click to expand...

We can not say anything to the person at the terminating number. Even if our Orig has made 10 phone calls, using 10 different credit cards, phone numbers, names and addresses, we can not alert anyone. We must remain completely detached from the call. Violating this would surely mean an escort out the door... permanently.
 
Cheri said:
That is Why I have to watch myself I don't want to give out too much Personal about myself Knowing there are Scams everywhere.
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The scams are not aimed at you Cheri. Don't worry, operators would never break the confidentiality of a deaf caller.
 
ScamBuster said:
No voice user or text is recorded or saved, ever!. Once you disconnect from Relay - State or IP, all information is gone forever! That's what makes it so confidential and why the scammers are using it.
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Scambuster, this may be simple solution or not, just suspend the text based portion of relay via internet (ip-relay) for couple of months to make them think, they are no longer in service forcing them to use line-based tty relay or use VRS, that would kill all scammers ability to scam anymore. well?
 
Fly Free said:
yea i agree with u Cheri always best to be protective of ur IDing information as much as possible --

ive visited Scambuster's message boards and read some quite interesting posts by the Relay Operators themselves and i applaud them for trying their best in dealing with scams that occurs too often while also dealing with legit calls from deaf/speech impaired folks -- i found that some of the criminals just simply doesnt know HOW to use the relay right :rofl: a surefire giveaway!

using GA repetively and using "plz" instead of "please" or "pls" as is the usual standard in the deaf community on the TTYs or when calling via relay -- one example is: "plz call xxx-xxx-xxxx gagaga" was posted there :rofl:
Click to expand...

To you and me it's obvious, but to a person who has never received an Relay call it isn't and when his/her first one is for an order totally thousands of dollars of products their judgment tends to get clouded.
 
Boult said:
Scambuster, this may be simple solution or not, just suspend the text based portion of relay via internet (ip-relay) for couple of months to make them think, they are no longer in service forcing them to use line-based tty relay or use VRS, that would kill all scammers ability to scam anymore. well?
Click to expand...

I don't think you'd be able to talk any of the companies into doing something like that. And I know 100 people in my city who would be layed off if they did that, but of course if they ever actually do stop the scam calls a lot of us would be out of a job anyway since scams and pranks are about 70% of our call volume on IP Relay.
 
then those scams call help you keep this job? without them, volumes of calls goes down so your pay goes down eh? pathetic!
 
Operator's message board

We really would like input from anyone and everyone in the deaf community on our board. It would show the other operators and the victims how you feel about this. Your empathy would be appreciated. Thanks http://ip_relay_scams.aimoo.com
 
Oh no, this is VERY SERIOUS !

Shouldn't we do something about this ?
 
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