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More on Scammers Abusing TTY Services
edward ericson writes "A more comprehensive look at IP Relay scams and their effect on relay operators, the deaf, US business and the relay providers like Sprint, AT&T and MCI. Unlike a previous piece in the AZ Star, this one shows that the problem is at least a year old, and estimates that the companies have earned at least $23 million by facilitating scams. Anyone here care to discuss IP blocking techniques?" See our previous story for more.
Anything that's totally given away for free meant to help a certain segment of society should at least seek proof that the person taking advantage of the service is a member of that segment of society.
No government in the USA hands out handcapped parking permits to everyone who asks. There's a documentation process to certify that one is entitled to it. Sure, that process sometimes gets fooled into giving a permit to somebody not entitled to it, but as least there's a paper trail created by such a fraud that can be followed once it is discovered.
Free TTY services be allowed to issue usernames and passwords to their customers, keep text logs of the conversations, and able to revoke the access of those who abuse their accounts. Basically, the laws that are requiring them to be open are also regulating this service to its death. This needs to be fixed quick.
Something else the submitter alluded to, and the article talked about: it looks like there needs to be an incentive to not take bogus phone calls. An incentive either in addition to or instead of an authentication system. Right now, if I read correctly, it seems as if "they" (AT&T, Sprint, etc) are getting paid by volume. That's a green light for greedy execs to sweep the problem under the rug, especially since the law prevents the operators from publically complaining.
Auto-reply to ACs: "Truly, you have a dizzying intellect."
It's more or less proven now that this system is implemented very poorly. IP-based TTY calls should be suspended until an effective authentication solution is in place.
Okay. We should also suspend email, then, right? Because it is implmented very poorly, there is no system of authentication, and it is subject to MASSIVE abuse?
Oh, wait. You want to suspend other people's means of communication, but not your own. My bad.
Actually, I'd be glad to see SMTP e-mail shut down and replaced with something better too.
TTY translation service existed just fine before IP connections were accepted, so it'll be just fine after. I'm not cutting off the old way, just cutting off the new way so that the old way can continue to operate without the public distrusting it...
What's bugging me is reading this Clarke book, in particular the lack of information awareness of the FBI. It's small wonder that more of the clowns spamming and scamming aren't getting busted. It would seem a fairly minor effort to look these people up, gather some evidence and send an agent over to bust their chops (or pass the stuff along to local athorities.)
That I'm still getting piles of spam states very clearly that tracking and apprehension are sorely lacking. That much effort is now put onto tracking terrorists rather than domestic criminals and they budgets for intelligence and law enforcement have taken some big hits under the current administration is a fairly clear message to perpetrators, "We will pass laws, but we A) Wont't enforce them OR B) Can't enforce them.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Modem as TTY terminal? I don't have a modem. I have broadband. What about IP relay via my sidekick pager? The service isn't broken - it works great for me. What's broken is your thinking.
While the addresses are not tied to geography, generally speaking you can tell which IP's are from inside the US and which are from outside. This is supposed to be a system used by deaf Americans, right? Just block all foreign IP addresses. It won't stop all of the false calls, but it will stop a lot of them.
That seems the only solution, unless you come up with some kind of authentication.
Of course, as the article states, the phone companies don't really have an incentive to stop the calls since they are paid either way. This may be one time that legislation is required.
The service isn't broken - it works great for me.
Dir you read the article? Legit deaf people can't order things via TTY anymore because store owners won't accept the calls. That's a broken service for sure...
We should also suspend email, then, right?
I think you missed a teensy little point: the IP relay service is funded by TAX DOLLARS and MANDATORY FEES on all phone bills. The big telcos are making profit at our expense -- they get paid BY THE MINUTE handling phone calls for scammers.
Can you hear me now?
Land line telephones existed before cell phones so why not just cut the cell phones out? Oh that's right, only the hearing people are allowed to move forward in technology while us retarded cripped poor deaf people need to stay in the stone ages. I keep forgetting my place in society.
I am legiminately deaf. I have never had a problem ordering things and I use the relay 50-75 times a year. Only once did was a call refused and that was by Ultimate Electronics. I simply proceeded to complain to the headquarters at the shoddy customer service and they promptly apologized and rolled out the red carpet. My family is all deaf as are most of my friends. Your "Legit deaf people can't order things via TTY anymore" is a fallacy.
I hope to god you become deaf one day and have to suffer with being treated daily like you were no longer a contributing member of society. For you it should become so difficult to do what others take for granted like ordering pizza. Then maybe you will begin to realize how stupid your comment was.
A data embargo would work much like a trade embargo. Sure, "black market" activities would go under the radar... but the intent is to disrupt above-the-board activites in order to get the government to do something that it was supposed to be doing all along.
Just like how WTO punishments can often be handed out to unrelated industries... the point is just to get the violation to stop.
Congratulations - this is EXACTLY what should have been done. You did not discriminate against deaf people. You merely avoided being a victim of scam. Now if you get a relay call in the future I hope you will take the call and if the person sounds legit that you would treat the deaf customer like any other customer you have.
Relay calls are inherently slower than direct calls - this is simply due to having a third party translator. But an hour??! Something else was going on - he was probably using some web based translator to translate Nigerian to English and vice versa.