I walked in the door, and recieved a phone call, from a "relay," service. The lady informed me that this service is designed for people who are deaf/hard of hearing, whereas they use the internet, to type what they want to say, the operator then, "relays," to me, and I have to respond. She noted that I have to speak in "first person," and to say, "go ahead," when I am finished. It was a weird #, a Minn. #, so initially, I thought maybe it was Joe. Does this # look familiar?

612-524-0455???

It says you can do this harassing through MyIMRelay. Yahoo! and/or AIM - which is probably what happened.

612-524-0455 MCI IP-Relay

MCI (MCIA.PK) today announced it has reached an agreement with America Online ("AOL") to allow deaf, hard of hearing and speech disabled individuals to access MCI's IP-RELAY.com services via AOL, AOL® Instant MessengerTM and Apple Computer iChat services. Deaf, hard of hearing and speech disabled AOL members and AIM users can now establish an instant text conversation with MCI Relay operators to complete calls from computers and mobile devices with Internet access.

The AIM service is available free-of-charge on a variety of Internet-enabled devices. Users will be able to instantly connect to MCI's IP-RELAY.com services anywhere, at any time. To establish a call, AOL members, AIM users and iChat users can simply add the MCI Relay screen name, "My IP Relay," to their Buddy List® feature. When users click on the "My IP Relay" screen name and open a message window, they will be prompted to initiate an IP-RELAY.com call. Users simply type what they want to say into the message window and an operator facilitates the call.

Companies who offer the service (IPRelay (MCI), Sprint, and AT&T) aren't working too hard to prevent the abuse or authorize users. Why? As this user notes in our forums, the companies are being paid close to $1.50 per minute by the FCC (and you) for carrying the traffic. Do the exponential math, and most of these companies stand to make millions a year via their "good will".

Over the past year, a high volume of operators in the past year have spoken out about the volume of prank calls and scams they've been forced to process. According to one source quoted by a Baltimore paper earlier this year, nearly 90% of the traffic on IP-Relay networks is scammers using stolen credit cards to anonymously mail-order electronics in bulk.

The result has been an increase in companies refusing calls from IP-Relay services, and busy operators unable to take the calls of users who actually need the service. While the FCC, operators, and the companies are all aware of the problem, so far the companies involved claim they're waiting for the FCC's "leadership" on the issue before they'll act.

www.dslreports.com...