Telephone Relay Fraud

Not sure what a telephone relay is? A telephone relay is a tool used to help the hearing impaired make phone calls to businesses and other entities that may not have a tele-typing device to communicate with them. The hearing impaired can contact a special operator that will stand in the middle of the conversation to “speak” the words of the caller to the receiver. Unfortunately, the service has become a new weapon for fraudsters to commit fraud.

The exploit of the service is that the caller and origin of the call are protected from disclosure to the receiver by law, which allows scammers to hide their identity. The scam being employed is a variant of an overpaying scam where the fraudster places a call through the telephone relay service. The customer then explains that the delivery service they prefer to use doesn’t accept credit cards and asks the business to wire money to the shipper and to charge their credit card for the total plus shipping. The business ends up burned on both ends through the loss of goods and whatever funds were transferred to the shipper/fraudster. Importantly, companies must educate their employees on this type of attack and to take all precautions even if they feel bad for the customer.