Telepocalypse

A deaf ear

Two very interesting stories over at Slashdot on how scammers are using relay services for the deaf to anonymize their telephone transactions.

The Arizona Daily Star is reporting on how 419 scammers and credit card thieves are abusing the US' TTY service which enables hearing-impaired citizens to make phone calls with the help of an intermediary operator. 'The callers try to use stolen credit-card numbers to make big purchases of merchandise from American companies. The operators often suspect fraud, but they can't just hang up. Federal rules require them to make the calls and keep the contents strictly confidential.'

This will only be solved by some for of digital identity. Identity is going to be the hot story of the decade. Just like in 1994 few people could see how cellular would explode into the general population, a decade later the need for better digital ID is equally pressing and under-recognized.

My only hope is that we find a happy medium on privacy. You don't need to be personally identified in order to use this sort of service. That makes deaf people second class citizens in the privacy stakes. But you do need to have membership of the "verified deaf American people" set to get through. Deaf people should be able to launch scams through this service if we're to preserve the right to privacy and anonymous communications. Then we're all equals. It's a funny world.

UPDATE: More here.