Rant: Deaf relay abuse

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Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 4:52 pm

Okay, this is old news that's been discussed before, but I'm just p*ssed this morning. I HATE lads who abuse the deaf relay service for their scam calls. Evil or Very Mad

I got five such messages this morning on my K7 number, from two different check lads who apparently don't want to call directly lest their accents trip them up (they're pretending to be British, of course). Deaf relay services have an important job to accomplish. I loathe the lads who abuse it. I'm so angry at these b*stards this morning that I could spit nails. [/rant]

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 5:00 pm

Ethics and Lads do not go together. Never have. Never will.

There is no depth to which a lad will not stoop if he thinks he might get a payoff.

All you can do is banghead

and then take it out on the next lad that lands in your mail box. Twisted Evil

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 5:54 pm

No need to take my wrath out on the next lad to come along (though I will, anyway! Laughing

), I'm going to ratchet up my abuse of the check lads who set me off in the first place. They're not going to be happy when I keep making them send replacement checks, then eventually abscond with the money.

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 7:24 pm

One of our new members posted he / she is a deaf relay operator. He / she might like to share some stories for those who have not heard of this before.

I found the below website that came up with a possible solution to stop this:

http://www.stoprelayabuse.com/Save.relay.0.html

and here is where you can help:

http://www.stoprelayabuse.com/Contact.FCC.0.html

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 9:03 pm

Thanks, Perse, that's very helpful.

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 9:29 pm

Juan,
I'm baiting a lad that claims to represent the "Deafs Network". I print his checks and have 2 mules who recieve them. The lad has is own mules as well, and is always looking for more mules.
If you're interested, Pm me.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 25 Nov 2007 Posts: 6

You have no idea how angry this makes me as well. Relay is a vital service for the deaf community. The volume of scam calls coming over the relay service is making many business owners wary of any relay call. Some businesses now refuse to take such calls. I know of a bank that won't take relay calls over their regular 24/7 service line. Instead deaf customers have to call a 9 to 5 line staffed with people specially trained to spot relay scammers. Any legitimate deaf customer has to work twice as hard as a hearing customer to prove their identity in a situation like this. Unfortunately, you can't really blame the businesses for having this attitude if they are getting constantly burned by scammers.

I think some form of registration to use relay is a good idea, like the links above advocate. Some in the deaf community are really resistant to this, and I sympathize because it would be inconvenient to go through a registration process. The deaf community wants phone access equivalent to the hearing community. Unfortunately equivalent access is impossible. Relay is by nature more anonymous than a hearing phone call. You can't see the caller's phone number on your call waiting. You can't *69 them. If you are being harassed by someone using relay you can't get police to trace the call. You can't hear the caller's gender, age, or accent. This is why it is a haven for fraud, and somehow it needs to become less anonymous or that will never change.

On a personal note, having to place calls for scammers is extremely upsetting. Most relay services try to flush scam calls that are not being placed by legitimate users of relay, or ban their IP addresses/AIM usernames. (anyone outside the US is not a legitimate user of relay, regardless of whether they are hearing or deaf) But there are strict laws and requirements that relay services have to follow and they are very cautious about identifying a call as fraud. As a relay operator, I usually know in a few seconds whether I am dealing with a fraud call or not, but my gut feeling is not proof to a supervisor.

Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 1:00 am

Thanks so much for your input, Relayopr. Knowing how angry I get about this, I can only imagine how hard it must be for you to deal with it, being literally caught in the middle. It must be downright painful to do your job when you know full well what is really going on.

I had a very interesting experience a few months ago. I got a call that was directed to my business, with questions about ordering from my website. The questions were pretty much the usual vague ones I get all the time by email -- "I'd like to buy your products, do you take credit cards" yada yada. I definitely smelled something fishy, the caller obviously had no clue about what I sell.

But then a very surprising thing happened: a supervisor broke into the call, apologized for interrupting, then said that because they were seeing a huge jump in the volume of fraud-related calls lately they looked for certain questions. This call set off red flags. He couldn't tell me not to continue but he advised me to be cautious. I laughed and said that I suspected as much, but thanked him profusely for the warning and assured him that I seriously appreciated it. And I asked them to disconnect the caller, I had no interest in continuing.

I wish that sort of intervention were more common. Maybe those scamming bastards would finally give up abusing the service if it stops paying off for them.

Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 2:49 pm

I manage a department that receives incoming sales calls and every once in awhile we get calls from the relay system. To my knowledge none of these have ever been a legitimate call. It's very unfortunate that we, as well as many other businesses, view these calls as automatic frauds since it probably causes a real hardship for legitimate users.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 25 Nov 2007 Posts: 6

Juan Freizwidatt wrote:

But then a very surprising thing happened: a supervisor broke into the call, apologized for interrupting, then said that because they were seeing a huge jump in the volume of fraud-related calls lately they looked for certain questions. This call set off red flags. He couldn't tell me not to continue but he advised me to be cautious. I laughed and said that I suspected as much, but thanked him profusely for the warning and assured him that I seriously appreciated it. And I asked them to disconnect the caller, I had no interest in continuing.

Different relay services use different criteria in blocking calls. And yes, some services have a supervisor get on the line to warn the scam target. That's really nice, but it's risky for the relay service if they make a mistake so not all of them do it. Sad

Some relay operators are cynical and suspect their bosses of not minding so much about fraud because they get paid by the government for the call whether it's fraud or not. I don't really agree, at least not for most services. It's a huge morale issue for their employees, and their ultimate "customer" is the American phone-using tax-paying public. But figuring out which calls to block is not easy. Any time you design a set of criteria for blocking calls, the lads adapt, become more vague, or simply use the phone calls to ask their targets to talk to them online.

Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 4:03 pm

As a hearing-impaired person (60% bilateral loss), without access to a relay service I really miss the joy of an audible telephone conversation and detest those who abuse such luxury. Keep up your good work Juan and Relayopr and give the lads hell. Twisted Evil

Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 4:20 pm

Relayopr wrote:

.....because they get paid by the government for the call whether it's fraud or not. .....using tax-paying public. But figuring out which calls to block is not easy. Any time you design a set of criteria for blocking calls, the lads adapt, become more vague, or simply use the phone calls to ask their targets to talk to them online.

And there is the problem.

As far as I'm aware, this is more than a service, it's a right.

Whenever a Lad can find a loophole that he can exploit, then he will Evil or Very Mad

SK GA

Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 8:14 pm

A little while ago another baiter pointed me to the following forum:

http://relayscams.aimoo.com/

It is where deaf relay operators discuss how to warn victims of fraud. Sometimes they do so in their own free time, smuggling out the telephone numbers and victim information with the risk of losing their jobs when caught.

I was in awe reading that forum.