Scammers Using Internet Phone Service For The Deaf, Pt 3

Related link: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/7903

This is Part 3 of a series on abuse of the IP Relay service for the deaf and speech-impaired. Here are links to the other installments: Part 1, Part 2, Part 4.

Do The Companies Care?

Many IP Relay operators posting on Nigerian Scams criticize their employers for not doing enough to control abusive IP Relay calls. Some charge that the relay providers have an interest in keeping call volume high, since they are paid about $1.31 out of the Telecommunications Relay Service Fund for each minute of call time. According to Clear-Conscience:

"They want them to continue... A supervisor told me that if we hang up on scam calls, we're hanging up on money. Another supervisor said he has morals too, but he doesn't wear them on his sleeve."

Clear-Conscience works for MCI, but operators for other relay providers make similar accusations. They say providers don't do enough to block calls from foreign IP addresses (relay calls are required to originate from the US), don't do enough to warn the general public, and are overly harsh with operators who try to call attention to illegitimate calls--including summarily firing those who interfere with such calls.

The relay companies, though, say such complaints are ill-informed.

For a start, says MCI spokesperson Natasha Haubold, providers can't simply choose to ignore the law: "Federal law prohibits [operators] from interfering with a call in any way... It's like a phone tap--when you and I are having a phone conversation, there isn't a third party listening. So they have to act as if they're not there. If they didn't, it would be like an unauthorized phone tap"

Haubold says the legal prohibition on interference extends even to flagging calls that appear suspicious, since that would put the operator in the role of an active eavesdropper; complaints must come from affected parties, such as businesses that have been paid with an invalid credit card. But, she says, MCI's response to such complaints is aggressive: "MCI will take immediate corrective action and notify the authorities if necessary. We will identify IP addresses and block them if they have been used in a fraudulent way." Haubold says MCI engineers have been able to cut the incidence of unwanted relay calls to a low percentage of the daily total.

Those comments are echoed by spokespeople for ATT and Sprint. Sprint's Debra Peterson describes the complaints of the relay operators as anecdotal, and adds that they are hard to assess, since many of the operators who complain are anonymous (posters on Nigerian Scams use pseudonyms for fear of being fired). She says Sprint tries to warn businesses to be on guard, but prefers not to publicize the risk more widely, as that might encourage even more scammers and pranksters. Sprint sent a tip sheet to businesses last year; the Illinois Pharmacists Association stores a PDF copy here, and see "Sprint's Tips", below. The FCC also has issued advisories, such as this PDF.

In response to the charge that relay providers like the revenue they reap from abusive calls, Peterson says that "any sort of fraud really hurts a valuable service", and points out that in the context of Sprint's annual revenues (nearly $27 billion last year), the income from IP Relay "is not something that would make or break" the company.

StopRelayAbuse.com's Lisa Markkula is unsatisfied by these explanations. She charges that the release of business advisories and the blocking of IP addresses are both ineffectual. She points out that many if not most people are still unaware of the risk and that it's all too easy to use free or cheap IP-masking software. Markkula features a chart on her web site showing the rapid rise in relay minutes and linking it to what she roughly estimates as $25 to $40 million dollars spent on bogus relay calls in a recent six month period. She speculates (though with limited evidence) that some of that money may be going to terrorists:

"Early on, Internet Relay was flooded with calls to Pakistan, a well-known hub of terrorist activity. Eventually this problem was solved when Internet Relay providers stopped placing calls to numbers outside the U.S. and its territories. In his book Blood from Stones, The Secret Financial Network of Terror, author and former West Africa bureau chief for The Washington Post Douglas Farah describes petty scams similar to those run through Relay."

Sprint's Tips

From Sprint's "Tip Sheet For Businesses Using Internet Relay":

"Businesses should taken caution when they receive the following types of requests through a relay call to prevent from becoming a potential victim of this type of scam:

The caller wants products fast ("can you ship it today?")

Multiple units ordered and asked for in "pieces" (1000 t-shirts is "1000 pieces")

Lack of knowledge of the product

Lack of questions about the product

Not concerned about price

Poor grammar or spelling is used

Uses American names in reverse (last name as first, first as last)

Repeatedly calls via Relay to rush the order

Refuses to wire money directly to you

Often poses as a religious or charitable organization"

Return To Article

To be continued. Next time: What Can Be Done? After the last installment is posted, you'll be able to find the completed series at my O'Reilly author's page, under the O'Reilly Weblogs heading.