Overseas Crooks Abuse TTY Phone Service

Rick Zeman writes "The Arizona Daily Star is reporting on how 419 scammers and credit card thieves are abusing the US' TTY service which enables hearing-impaired citizens to make phone calls with the help of an intermediary operator. 'The callers try to use stolen credit-card numbers to make big purchases of merchandise from American companies. The operators often suspect fraud, but they can't just hang up. Federal rules require them to make the calls and keep the contents strictly confidential.' Yes, Virginia, they have no shame...."

Comments

No more than a public phone call. +Mods are idios

[b00m3rang]

n/t

Re:legality of aiding in illegal things

[Bob MacSlack]

Operators have to maintain confidentiality. No excuses. There's a section in our manual (i'm an operator btw) that specifically deals with bomb threats to the center. But there are 2 different situations. One is if they direct it to the operator, in which case it's treated like a normal call to the center and law enforcement is notified etc. The other one is if they mention it during a call. The operator is bound by law to say nothing, and continue relaying the call as normal ("Sorry, i have to go home, I don't feel well. And for that matter neither do you ::SIGNIFICANT LOOK::").

I would also assume that any information given by an operator in breach of confidentiality would be inadmissible. Operators cannot be forced to divulge information from call content, and doing so is risking your job, and possibly other penalities. Someone did post links to sites about operators doing that though, so it's not like it doesn't happen.