Several Business in the community have received calls from people using the TTY relay system.  Initial contact is made through email with the caller wanting to make a purchase.  The item purchased will have to be shipped to the caller’s location.  The caller then agrees to pay for the purchase and shipping with a credit card or check and the merchant will need to pay the shipper.

The first call we received about this the TTY caller told the merchant to add the shipping to the invoice and that only one charge could be made on the credit card provided and the merchant needed to pay the shipping charge.  Fortunately that did not sound like a good business practice and the merchant told them no thank you.

The second call we received about this the merchant asked if we had heard of anything about TTY caller orders with shipping involved.  Thankfully, we could tell the situation of the first call and this merchant also declined.

The third situation involved an individual with an item for sale online.  The TTY caller sent a check for the item and the shipping with instructions to deposit the check and western union the shipper the money and provide the money order information to the buyer.   

These scams can also be reported on the Abilene BBB home page.  Once on the home page click “For Consumer” and in the resource library section click “Scam Source” and then click “report a scam”.  Fill out as much information as you can and submit.