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brooklynman4
join:2004-09-07
Brooklyn, NY | Re: Telcos have no choice - can't block TRS If someone invents something there is always flaw in it so its not they knew this already. | |
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Megladon
@hoola.com
| It is rediculous what they are charging the govt isnt it, regardless of what your thoughts are (pro telocom). At any rate, cant the phone companys that provide the service do some sort of self policing for what they're charging to atleast report something that could possibly be criminal activity to a govt agency? I would think that would protect everyones best interest. The service would remain intact, they can bilk the govt for millions, and criminals have a harder time useing bs credit cards | |
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| | jdjbuffalo
join:2004-01-17
Denver, CO
| Re: Telcos have no choice - can't block TRS said by Megladon :
At any rate, cant the phone companys that provide the service do some sort of self policing for what they're charging to atleast report something that could possibly be criminal activity to a govt agency? I would think that would protect everyones best interest. The service would remain intact, they can bilk the govt for millions, and criminals have a harder time useing bs credit cards
The phone company can't police it because the person doing the translating is required by law to be basically nothing more than a "telephone line". This means that even if they are aware that fraud is occurring there is nothing they can do because it's a private conversation which they are forbidden from getting involved in. It's the privacy protections we are supposed to have, were it not for the Warantless Wiretapping that the President is so fond of.
I've personally dealt with these scam artists several times before. And they will call up a business and ask for something specific. Often times the business won't have it. These people will keep asking for similar stuff until they find something you have and then they'll want to buy several thousand dollars worth, often times on separate credit cards.
If you ever get a call at your place of business from this service make sure you are immediately suspicious of the person's intentions unless you know that person. | |
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gaforces
United We Stand, Divided We Fall
join:2002-04-07
Santa Cruz, CA | If the gov't wanted to remedy the situation they would have done so already.
It's a TRAP!  | |
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wruckman
Ruckman.net
join:2007-10-25
Northwood, OH | Iprelay troubles HAHA! Who hasn't used IPRelay to make a funny on someone? But fraud...Not good. | |
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CarterStClai
X-Out The W
join:2002-04-17
Sugar Land, TX
edit:
January 14th, @11:05AM
| Re: Iprelay troubles Uh...me. I don't know *anybody* who has used this service in the way you just described. | |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
 ·Cox HSI
 ·AT&T Southwest
| Re: Iprelay troubles Damn, server's down | |
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| | | | birdfeedr
Premium
join:2001-08-11
Warwick, RI
 ·Verizon FIOS
| Re: Iprelay troubles said by KrK  :Damn, server's down it looks like a domain squatter got pacoc.com, and phuzion.com does not resolve. The original thread is from 2004, which is prehistoric in internet years.  | |
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SilenceGold
Premium
join:2003-07-31
Sherwood, AR
| I am disappointed to find out that some DSLR users find it amusing to abuse the services that are intended for hearing impaired users who need to make phone calls.
It is a huge waste of taypayers money every time an abuser uses the relay services. Soon, the text based IP relay services will disappear and video based IP relay will be the replacement.
To effectively abuse the video based IP relay services, knowledge of sign language is a requirement.  | |
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Sefirato
Turambar, Master of Fate
Premium
join:2002-05-08
Anchorage, AK
| Re: Iprelay troubles said by SilenceGold :To effectively abuse the video based IP relay services, knowledge of sign language is a requirement. Yeah, and I tend to abuse them a lot in the last 2 years! Fortunately for me, I'm getting an upgraded videophone equipment this week from Sorenson VRS, wheee!
Anyway, I haven't really used IP Relay much except for incoming calls and they tend to suck in that regard anyway since most callers don't appear to want to leave a message when they attempt to call me. How it works, they call the number given to me by IP Relay, then IP Relay contacts me through AIM (or VP in some cases) to connect me to the caller. Often whenever someone calls and IP Relay contacts me on the AIM, they hang up before I could relay my message back. I wonder why, maybe it was because of these scammers? Hm.
Oh, and I'm deaf. | |
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SilenceGold
Premium
join:2003-07-31
Sherwood, AR
| Re: Iprelay troubles Deaf here too.
How are you doing the abusings? Or did you mean to say that you used them a lot in the last 2 years?
I use CSDVRS's call back feature. I'm given a 888 number and a hearing person can call my 888 number and it goes straight to my video phone. I have gotten several video messages when they don't get an answer. | |
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Sefirato
Turambar, Master of Fate
Premium
join:2002-05-08
Anchorage, AK
| Re: Iprelay troubles That sounds really nice. What I meant was that I used them a lot (maybe not enough though compared to some folks that I know) over the last 2 years. I received my first videophone in 2004. We're currently slated to receive our VP-200 this Thursday.
I do have a Call-back feature but not with CSDVRS though. Both of the call-back features are with IM-based relay services such as i711 and ip-relay.
When we get our VP-200, I'll be checking out more about the CSDVRS features and see how it will benefit us as we usually turn the VP-100 off for most of the day. | |
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| | | | | | | james1
join:2001-02-26
antarctica | Re: Iprelay troubles What happens if you're blind and deaf? I wonder if they have some sort of braile or tactile communications device. | |
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| | | | | | | | beatparty
Premium
join:2001-02-11
38906 | Re: Iprelay troubles This is actually being done, see hawkrelay.com for more information. | |
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| | | | | | | beatparty
Premium
join:2001-02-11
38906 | i711 and ip-relay is now owned by the same company as of last week. | |
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markosjal
join:2005-08-06
Mexico | Accomplices to Fraud Very simple,
If the systems are being used for Fraud, and the telephone companies benefit from it, they are accomplices to the crime, if they are not taking active measures to prevent fraud over such systems. | |
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| jdjbuffalo
join:2004-01-17
Denver, CO | Re: Accomplices to Fraud They are protected from this by their Common Carrier status that all phone lines enjoy. This means that they aren't responsible for their misuse. | |
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| markosjal
join:2005-08-06
Mexico | Yes , to some degree, however I also believe they must take steps to prevent this type of fraud. | |
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nightwalker
Nightwalker
join:1999-08-07
Appleton, WI
edit:
January 14th, @03:45PM
| it's so easy to use They make the service extremely user friendly, you can call in three languages (English, Spanish or French).
Overview: »www.nextel.com/en/solutions/rela···ex.shtml
Web: »www.sprintip.com/
AIM: sprintIP
I admit to using the service in the past, mainly when I was unable to place a voice call. My brother has used the service a couple of times, where he didn't have cellphone coverage, but had wifi access.
--
»www.reverse.net | |
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| joker5656
join:2006-06-23
Greenville, SC
·Charter Pipeline
| Re: it's so easy to use easy fix, if the purchase is over so much, the company needs to require a fax with credit card and drivers license. tel-cos can't and shouldn't be blamed. i still know this won't prevent all fraud since drivers license are stolen to, but usually credit cards are stolen by themselves and the license thrown out. if anything the company's taking the orders shouldn't do over the phone transactions. | |
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alanhdsl
Premium
join:1999-10-09
Phoenix, AZ
·Qwest.net
| How does this work? I can see two reasons for using relay rather than calling in the scam directly:
1. You don't have to pay long distance charges
2. You can disguise your caller id
I think there are plenty of ways to get around the caller ID problem, so the only real advantage I see is that it's cheaper for the scammer, particularly if they're outside the US.
I don't see how this is any more of a risk to businesses than scammers calling them directly. A scammer could read off a stolen credit card number just as easily as the relay operator. I would think that the business would take the normal precautions when taking an order, regardless of the source. How is a relayed call more of a risk? | |
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AnonProxy
Proxy of Anon
Premium
join:2001-05-12
ß | Ha this is utter BS 99% of the traffic on TRS is kids getting their jollies having the relay ops say dirty things to people on the far end. | |
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JoeOnSunset
Doublethink Is Doubleplus Ungood.
Premium
join:2002-11-25
Ormond Beach, FL | Re: Ha this is utter BS I'd like to do a stint as a relay operator. I wonder who's hiring... | |
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VITERP
join:2008-03-09
| VRS Fraud by Providers of VRS I m a relay operator in VRS. While I believe that the majority of the telcos that provide TRS type services are honest, there are some involved in fraud.
I worked for a VRS provider whose users confessed to being paid to make calls. My employer as well as other VRS providers were implicated by several of the callers. The scam was rumored to have started through a www known as deafpoints.com. In order for members to earn "points" they had to place calls to specific VRS providers.
These calls would last for hours; up to 5 hours at a time. A "live" person was never reached. Instead a very brief recording followed by dead silence with no end in sight unless the inbound video caller ended the call ensued.
Different video callers called the same number and got the same recording and dead silence for hours.
After a few of us complained about these seemingly deceptive calls, a change happened. We began to get lengthy recordings that looped for repetitious,continuous play covering an array of topics: Fiscal projections, medical research, pre-recorded podcasts, and even books on tape. The video callers would not pay attention or would tell us not to relay. They preferred to have personal conversations with us instead. We complained again and the length of calls were limited to 1 to 2 hours but the calls continued. The callers were still simply connecting and walking away from the call, preferring to talk to us, or watching television. We often just sat there listening to the same recording many times a day without relaying a thing. One of several video callers would call 2-3 times a day calling the same recording for weeks!
We complained and another change happened. We were now relaying the one sided messages so that we didn't feel like we were "doing nothing" while connected to these calls. The callers didn t care about the message. Again, either walking away, watching television, or falling asleep.
Changes happened "coincidentally" each time we complained, but they never stopped or tried to stop them.
I am no longer with the company and I have reported my experience to the FCC. The FCC rep just took a statement over the phone and I haven t heard a thing since.
These providers are still in business and ripping us all off at approximately 80 to 120 thousand minutes a month if not more. That is a little over 1/2 a million taxpayer dollars a month. VRS companies are paid $6.64 a minute which is much more than IP relay.
I know my employer encouraged these type of calls even though they vehemently denied it. Their deaf employees, family and friends were among these callers. A couple of them confirmed the allegations.
If anyone knows how I can tell my story and stop this fraud, please advise!
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FCC Warns Of IP Relay (TRS) Fraud
Telcos have no choice - can't block TRS
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