Related link: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/7903
This is the conclusion of a series on abuse of the IP Relay service for the deaf and speech-impaired. Here are links to the earlier installments: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
What Can Be Done?
Efforts to fight IP Relay abuse are complicated by the open, networked nature of the system, and by the diverging interests of the people involved.
Law Enforcement
In response to complaints from fraud victims, the FBI has begun tracking the problem, and has had some success in pursuing scammers all the way to Nigeria. Last year, 17 people were arrested in Lagos by a team led by agent Dale Miskell of the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). Miskell's team inspected courier packages in Lagos, emailing IC3 about any that looked suspicious: "By morning I'd have an e-mail back with a list of the ones suspected of fraud. Then, we'd pay a visit to the addressee. A Nigerian officer would pose as a parcel company driver and would make the delivery and subsequent arrest, with several Nigerian officers and I in my Suburban as backup."
The FBI also helped investigate a bizarre case in which a scientist specializing in technology to assist the deaf admitted to charging the federal Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) Fund for bogus calls in order to fund his research. Ranaan Lieberman and his then company Publix agreed to return the nearly $8 million they had received from the TRS Fund while operating a teletype (TTY) based relay call center in 1999 and 2001.
The IC3 is interested in hearing reports of IP Relay fraud; complaints can be filed here. However, given that the abuse is widespread and decentralized, it seems unlikely that enforcement alone will be able to stamp it out, any more than it has been able to stop email fraud.
Registration
Lisa Markkula of StopRelayAbuse.com argues that there is a simple safeguard against bogus relay callers: Register the genuine ones. "Legitimate relay users would submit a letter from a licensed health care professional saying they need the service," she says. "After verification, they would then be issued a username and password to log on to the Internet Relay websites."
But that solution becomes less simple when you run it by people who are in fact deaf, hard of hearing or speech-impaired. Many of them hate the idea of registration.
"Do you have a registration number as a hearing person?" asks Erin Casler, a spokeswoman for Telecommunications for the Deaf, Inc., a non-profit advocacy group. Speaking via Video Relay (in which an operator translates sign language to and from speech), Casler says, "In order to have equal access, we shouldn't have to have [a number]."
In answer to that objection, Markkula points out that handicapped people are required to register for their parking placards. Casler, though, maintains there is a difference. Communication, she says, is "a fundamental right", and registration would be an invasion of privacy, which would violate the functional equivalence requirement of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Casler also objects to interventions by operators because of privacy concerns, saying legitimate users will worry that operators are listening to and judging everything they say.
Video Relay
Some relay users recommend switching to Video Relay Service, as Casler has. Since it requires the use of sign language, VRS presents a tall barrier to entry to bogus users. And as, Casler points out, "It's a smoother communication. I don't have to say GA [Go Ahead] or SK [Stop Keying]." But VRS costs the TRS Fund significantly more per minute, and not all legitimate relay users know sign language.
Information Inoculation
It may be that the best hope is public education. Even here there is some resistance. "If you write something, then it gives people ideas, like the copycat effect after a movie comes out," says Sprint's Debra Peterson.
But the current popularity of relay abuse may actually be an argument for the effectiveness of awareness. Nigerian email scams, for example, are now so well known that they are the object of widespread ridicule, with thousands of web sites exploring the topic. The scammers' move to IP Relay could be seen as a forced adaptation, like a virus mutating in response to a somewhat successful treatment. So, as with attacks on other information systems, information may be the best available vaccine.
Read More Entries by Spencer Critchley.
