Anij: Scammers from Nigeria-I assume they would access the Relay in Nigeria and have them make a long distance call from their TTY phone. Would the Canadian business not immediately figure out sometime is wrong-- Not having customers in Nigeria?
Implanted Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
They often use Internet Relay (computer based) - with proxy servers, some free software, a bit of lying (where you live, etc) you can access the USA IP relay from anywhere in the world - then call anywhere in North America.
Crooks and scammers are "tricky" and "innovative" to get what they want.
Also - as we've mentioned before - Relay operators are NOT allowed to "screen called", or interfere with calls - EVEN if they KNOW it's a scammer calling.
Think of it from this perspective .... imagine what would happen if Relay operators suddenly were allowed and legally able to decide what calls Hoh/d/Deaf/SI callers could make ??? This is what you are purposing when you say that the relay operators should "know" and be able to do something about it ... Relay isn't there to "protect" TTY users they're simply there to provide Voice to Text, and Text to Voice translation WITHOUT getting involved. Period.
You asked why businesses don't readily know they're being scammed ... having worked at a business that actually got these calls, I can explain
Typically the scammers will call - they don't SAY they're calling from Nigeria (this is information that authorities have found out during investigations, it's not disclosed by the callers). They will call up, and place an order for large ticket items and have them delivered - to a location IN the country (ie in Canada or the USA) and use credit cards to pay for the purchase (fakes, stolen, identity theft etc).
Another scam we saw was the caller saying that they were flying in to buy various big ticket items (much cheaper in Canada/ISA than their country etc ... or they are buying an item to be shipped overseas (many types of businesses deal with international sales on a fairly regular basis - so it DOESN'T raise an immediate "red flags" - the product is either ordered and shipped (then the card is found to be stolen/created but valid etc.). Many times the caller/scammer will say something about how they are setting up a new program for "........." and they're calling because they found online that this was the best place for the prince and products they needed etc ... then they "purchase" $3000 -7000 worth of items (under the premise that they're "starting up a new program" ... the issue is that this exact thing DOES happen legitimately ALL the time - on a monthly bases REAL companies/charities/organizations etc are starting up new programs - so that's not a "Red flag" either...
There are MANY ways that these scammers manage to get products from companies/businesses leaving the businesses in the "lurch" because the card was "valid" when rung through (swiped) etc ... but when the "real card owner" gets the bill - they catch the fraud ... of course this is TONS of legal paperwork, hours and hours of manager/owners time to track everything down etc ... and because most of the time the products are immediately run out of the country, they can't "track them" unless the product is sold to a major store, or goes in for repairs to a major store that voluntarily participates in a program to record and watch for stolen/illegally obtained etc products (including musical instruments, cars, electronics, household items etc)
The problem for businesses is that "weeding out" the real customers from the scammers is often very very difficult. The "defining" telltale hint that it is a scam - unfortunately- is that 90% of these scammers use Relay Operators as a means to do their "dirty work". This is because it allows them to disguise their true location, true name/info, prevents the company from accessing a valid "call back" number, disguises any "spoken language accents" as well as creates an "excuse" for any broken/poor English that may give away a location etc if it was heard by the company.
THAT is why so many businesses are wary of Relay Calls and won't do business transactions via relay and why they may hang up... they've either been scammed themselves in the past, or they've heard from another local business owner about how they'd been scammed - The sad part is that the honest HOh/d/Deaf/SI clients who use Relay end up penalized as well because there's no way for a business employee to know if it's a scam or really a person making a valid request - who happens to be Hoh/d/Deaf or have a SI of some kind ... having witnessed it happen on the business side, I understand the frustration and trepidation that businesses would feel especially because even if directly ASKED, Relay Operators are PROHIBITED from saying if they know/think the TTY/IP caller is a scammer
I'm sure if you asked your friends at CHS they'd be able to explain this and other aspects of Relay/TTY/IP/IM relay use that you're not familiar with - and more importantly explain how it impacts you (and it does, even if you're currently, unaware that it does) ~ especially if you want to be able to make educated and informed posts on the topic of TTYs, Relay etc ...
Knowledge is Power
The ability to Listen & Learn, is far more important than the ability to Hear and Know.
. Wouldn't the Canadian business immediately figure out something is wrong-- having customers in Nigeria?