Script Offers Help in Handling Scam Relay Calls

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Among the scams plaguing bookstores across the country is one in which fraudulent orders are placed through the relay telephone system developed to assist the hearing-impaired. To help new employees understand the scam and to provide an appropriate response to a relay call, Molly Seamans, the assistant manager of Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, put together a relay call reference sheet, which is shown to all new employees when they join the staff, and a dialog sheet, which is taped near the telephones at the store's information desk. The store has found that these reference sheets significantly cut down the time required to properly handle a relay call.

Thanks to Seamans and Harvard Book Store owner, Frank Kramer, for allowing BTW to share their reference sheet and dialog copy with our readers.

RELAY CALL REFERENCE SHEET
(Shown to all new employees)

Relay is a service offered by phone companies for hearing-impaired folks that enables them to make phone calls. They call an operator and type words, and the operator talks to us and types what we say back to the caller.

Occasionally, these calls are legitimate.

Lately, these calls are used by scam artists with other peoples' credit card numbers. Often they try to order multiple quantities of single expensive titles such as Black's Law Dictionary or medical textbooks.

WHEN YOU GET A RELAY CALL, MIMIC THIS CONVERSATION:

Operator: "'I would like to place an order for some Medical Books.' Go ahead."

Bookseller: "Okay, but just to let you know, we have had problems in the past with relay calls being used for scams. For this reason, before we proceed, I need to take the following information:

  • Your Full Name
  • Your Billing Address
  • Your Credit Card Number and Expiration Date
  • The Security Code on the Back of Your Credit Card

Also, you should know that it will take three to five days to verify the credit card information you give us before we can place the order. Go ahead."

DON'T LOOK UP ANY TITLES UNTIL YOU OBTAIN THE ABOVE INFORMATION.

We have found that getting this information out of the way at the beginning of the conversation scares off most scammers. Some scammers are more persistent, though.

If the person ends up seeming legitimate, apologize for the extensive information asked of them and explain that we must take this precaution to protect ourselves from fraud.

Every time Harvard Book Store gets a relay call, booksellers can easily handle it because the response below is taped by the phone. Before the store instituted this procedure, it took 30 - 45 minutes to deal with a relay call. Now, it takes about five minutes.

RELAY CALL RESPONSE
(Taped near the telephone at the Information Desk)

When you get a relay call, the first thing you say is:

"Okay, but just to let you know, we have had problems in the past with relay calls being used for scams. For this reason, before we proceed, I need to take the following information:

  • Your Full Name
  • Your Billing Address
  • Your Credit Card Number and Expiration Date
  • The Security Code on the Back of your Credit Card

Also, you should know that it will take three to five days to verify the credit card information you give us before we can place the order. Go ahead."

DON'T LOOK UP ANY TITLES UNTIL YOU OBTAIN THE ABOVE INFORMATION.

Note: If you have developed another effective method for dealing with scam artists and would like to share it with your bookseller colleagues, please send an e-mail to [email protected].

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