Internet Relay Fraud Returns

[jsinger]

Internet relay telephone fraud became a problem for web and B/M retailers in 2002. The service, created to help the handicapped, can be used by overseas scammers to place FREE international calls. The high cost of this service is borne by all USA telephone users including YOU. To use the system, no proof of need is required. Kids even use it to place obscene or prank calls.

Internet relay scams stopped nearly totally a few years ago. I understand the service no longer includes free INTERNATIONAL calls (Duh!)

But over the past two months we've received six scam attempts by Relay. In one case, when we asked the operator where the call was coming from, the caller immediately hung up.

I have no idea why this scam is back. We don't sell high risk products. I suspect the callers are no longer in Africa but perhaps within the US or more likely, Canada.

Have you been getting fraudulent Internet Relay calls lately?

[sun818]

Its like TTY but for the web generation:
[msnbc.msn.com...]

It seems easy enough to spot since it is very easy to detect someone who does not have a command of the English language. Besides when you have web or e-mail, why would TTY or Internet Relay be a service a disabled person would want to use anyway? If I received a TTY or Internet Relay call, my red flag would go up immediately.

[jsinger]

Ridiculous! :

It's not clear how widespread the problem is. Both MCI and AT&T concede con artists have used their systems, but say their impact is limited. MCI spokeswoman Natasha Haubold said scams impact about 1 percent of their system's calls -- down from 2 percent last year, when the company began implementing tighter security controls. AT&T refused to discuss the prevalence of the calls.

That nonsense was from 2004. More recent estimates put the % of scam related Internet relay calls in the neighborhood of 50% at the peak. 100% of IR calls we're received have been scams.

Note that there are online discussion groups of IR operators who are very outspoken about the problems and how they detest being FORCED accomplices in foreign-based fraud against honest merchants. (operators are forbidden to warn the victims and may lose their job if they do)

No, I don't think any WebmasterWorlders would fall for this. But just listening to an IR phone call can take 30 minutes because the messages are typed both ways.