Con artists are scamming thousands of dollars off of small business owners by abusing the Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) provided for residents of the United States with hearing disabilities.
TRS was established through the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, enabling people with disabilities to use telecommunication services. Through TRS a deaf person is able to type a message to the phone number needed using a text telephone, the internet, or a desk top video and a Communication Assistant reads the messages out loud to the business from the caller and types the business responses back to the deaf caller.
As reported by MSNBC, con artists posing as deaf callers have been cheating local merchants across the nation out of tens of thousands of dollars by using the TRS system. Recently, business owners in Iowa have believed to receive calls from possible con artists through TRS.
“The con artist, who is usually from a country in Africa, is able to disguise their accent by working through the Communication Assistant who has no control over what is said, because the Communication Assistant is required to keep all calls confidential,” explained Chris Coleman, BBB President.
The scammers often try to purchase large quantities of products with multiple stolen or fake credit card numbers. The callers are unable to provide the security code on the credit card and usually the small business owner sends the products before the credit card goes through, losing that merchandise which the con artist ends up reselling for their own profit.
Con artists are able to call for free through the government funded TRS program with the majority of them calling from outside the United States. TRS is provided by a variety of phone companies, including the three major companies MCI, AT&T, and Sprint. For every minute callers use TRS the phone company being used receives government funding for the program, even from those calls coming from outside of the United States.
“Beyond concerns that businesses are getting scammed, some businesses are now treating all TRS calls as pranks, even though some may be from legitimate, honest callers with disabilities,” states Coleman. “The BBB is issuing this alert because the TRS service is crucial, and calls should not be ignored. There are other ways to protect yourself from being scammed.”
To avoid hanging up on a potential consumer with a hearing disability using TRS, business owners are recommended to ask for a full name, billing address, credit card number and expiration date, and most importantly the security code on the back of the credit card and inform the consumer that it may take a few days to verify the credit card information before the order can be processed. If there is not a United States billing address the call is most likely not legitimate. A business or consumer can always offer to make a return call to check the truthfulness of the caller.
Businesses and consumers alike should never give out their bank Routing Number or Checking Account Number over the phone and to unknown persons.
Basic information about TRS can be found at www.fcc.gov.