AT&T Accused of Over Billing for Deaf Service
The U.S. Department of Justice is accusing telecommunications giant AT&T of improperly pocketing funds from a federal program by ignoring fraudulent use of its internet-based IP Relay service for deaf people.
According to the department, AT&T was aware that Nigerian scam artists were using the service to scam people, and that the company did nothing to stop it. In fact, the DoJ claims that AT&T allowed Nigerian scammers to use the service so that AT&T could, in turn, bill the federal government for the extra usage.
Here’s what the Department of Justice had to say of AT&T’s allegedly fraudulent activity:
“The complaint alleges that, out of fears that fraudulent call volume would drop after the registration deadline, AT&T knowingly adopted a non-compliant registration system that did not verify whether the user was located within the United States,” Justice officials said in a press release.
“The complaint further contends that AT&T continued to employ this system even with the knowledge that it facilitated use of IP Relay by fraudulent foreign callers, which accounted for up to 95 percent of AT&T’s call volume. The government’s complaint alleges that AT&T improperly billed the TRS (Telecommunications Relay Services) Fund for reimbursement of these calls and received millions of dollars in federal payments as a result.”
In a statement to Ars Technica, a spokesperson for AT&T denied any wrongdoing on the company’s part, pointing out that abuse of the IP Relay service is a problem that all telecommunications companies face.
“AT&T has followed the FCC’s rules for providing IP Relay services for disabled customers and for seeking reimbursement for those services,” AT&T spokesperson Marty Richter told Ars Technica. “As the FCC is aware, it is always possible for an individual to misuse IP Relay services, just as someone can misuse the postal system or an email account, but FCC rules require that we complete all calls by customers who identify themselves as disabled.”
